AN INVESTIGATION OF SMART SKIN TECHNOLOGY FOR VORTEX FLOW DETECTION

INNOVATIVE METHODS FOR MEASURING AND CONTROLLING VORTEX DOMINATED FLOWS MUST BE DEVELOPED TO ACHIEVE ENHANCED MISSION PERFORMANCE OF ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY FIGHTERS. THE PRIMARY OBJECTIVE OF THE PROPOSED RESEARCH IS TO DEFINE AND EXPERIMENTALLY QUANTIFY TECHNIQUES FOR MEASURING SURFACE FLOW PATTERNS AND VORTEX STRUCTURES. THE INITIAL PHASE I EFFORT WILL DEMONSTRATE AN INNOVATIVE CONCEPT BASED ON "SMART SKINS" TO MEASURE VORTEX FLOWFIELDS ON A DELTA WING USING SENSOR ARRAYS INTEGRAL TO THE AIRFOIL SKIN. THE BASIC CONCEPT IS TO MEASURE PRESSURE AND SHEAR FORCES AT THESURFACE WITH THIN FILM ARRAYS AND CONSTRUCT 3D VORTEX FIELDSUSING DIGITAL SIGNAL PROCESSING TECHNIQUES. LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS AND WIND TUNNEL FLOW VISUALIZATION TESTS WILL BECONDUCTED TO DEMONSTRATE EMBEDDED SOLID-STATE TRANSDUCERS IN AN OPEN-LOOP MODE OF OPERATION. THE MOST PROMISING SENSORS/ACTUATORS WILL BE INTEGRATED INTO A THIN BOOT DESIGNFOR PHASE II DEVELOPMENTAL AND PHASE III IN-FLIGHT TESTING ON NASA'S F/A-18 HIGH ANGLE OF ATTACK RESEARCH VEHICLE. THIS WOKK WILL HELP RESEARCHERS VERIFY THE ACCURACY OF COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS CALCULATIONS IN ORDER TO ACCURATELY PREDICT THE AERODYNAMICS AND BEHAVIOR OF AN AIRCRAFT MANEUVERING AT HIGH AOA. SUCCESSFUL DEVELOPMENT OFSMART SKINS COULD PRODUCE ADVANCED CONTROL MECHANISMS THAT EXTEND FIGHTER AIRCRAFT PERFORMANCE ENVELOPES WITHOUT THE COMPLEXITY AND WEIGHT PENALTIES OF PNEUMATIC CONTROL SYSTEMS.