Improvement of Aircraft Rolling Power by Use of Piezoelectric Actuators

Piezoelectric actuators are distributed on both side of a rectangular wing model, and the possibility of improvement of aircraft rolling power is investigated. The difference between the model with aileron deflection and the model without aileron (fictitious control surface, FCS) is studied. The analytical results show that these two cases are substantial different. In aileron deflection case, the aeroelastic effect is disadvantageous, so the structural stiffness should be high until the electrical voltage is not necessary. But in the case of FCS, the aeroelastic effect is advantageous and it means that lower structural stiffness can lead to lower voltage. Compared with aileron project, the FCS project can save structure weight.