In recent years, flight vehicles are becoming progressively more elastic and as a result, aeroelastic phenomena are becoming more prominent. A gusty environment or a high-load maneuver can result in considerable static or dynamic aeroelastic response, which, without proper control, might lead to excessive loads or even failure. Hence, there is a great incentive to sense, quantify, and control aeroelastic responses. Static shape sensing can be used to monitor the elastically deformed shape of a vehicle in trimmed flight, while dynamic shape sensing can be used to identify the aeroelastic system (frequencies and damping) under the aircraft’s operational conditions and control it.
This study investigates the methodology and application aspects of aeroelastic shape sensing using fiber-optic sensors in a dedicated wind-tunnel experiment. For that purpose, an elastic wing was designed and manufactured using rapid prototyping. The wing was tested at the Technion’s subsonic wind-tunnel at subcritical points and all the way to flutter. Strain measurements via both discrete and distributed dynamic fiber-optic sensing technologies were used to estimate a wing’s deformed shape and modal displacements using a strain-to-displacement transformation algorithm.
The seminar will present the use of optical fibers to measure strains, and the strain-to-displacement algorithm used in this study. The seminar will present the test case, aeroelstic analyses, and results from steady and dynamic wind-tunnel tests.
