Piezo-Hydraulic Actuation System Technologies (PHAST)

NextGen Aeronautics is proposing to refine the innovative actuator technology from PHAST Phase I and perform comprehensive bench tests under Phase II of this STTR. The proposed technology integrates piezoelectric, mechanical and hydraulic systems to create a system with the potential to provide damping, structural shape change, vibration suppression, flight control and precision pointing capabilities. The main objective of the Phase II development is to produce a flight test-ready actuator that has undergone rigorous laboratory testing. Two actuator designs; one based on co-fired piezoelectric stacks and other on single-crystal piezoelectric stacks will be developed to achieve sufficient authority for helicopter rotor blade vibration control and flight control, respectively. NextGen has teamed up with Georgia Tech and TRS Ceramic to develop piezoelectric crystal stacks and significantly mitigate identified risk factors associated with the piezoelectric crystal material and stack. Georgia Tech will also conduct environmental ground testing for stacks and prototype actuators. We have also teamed with the U.S. Army Research Labs Vehicle Technology Directorate (NASA Langley Research Center) to perform critical spin testing, and Boeing helicopter to conduct a full size blade bench testing. We anticipate flight test-ready prototype actuators, and streamlined design and fabrication procedures to produce custom built prototype actuators to OEM's requirements.