Real-Time Aeroelastic Measurement System (RAMS) for In-Flight Flutter Testing

A high dynamic response, Real-time Aeroelastic Measurement System (RAMS) using microns-thin hybrid sensor arrays will be developed to provide simultaneous unsteady normal-pressure and tangential shear-stress distributions on lifting surfaces undergoing bending and torsion during in-flight flutter testing. The surface signatures obtained with these sensors will be used to simultaneously obtain, in real-time, the spatial location and dynamic characteristics of unsteady flow phenomena such as boundary-layer transition, vortex flows, flow separation, and shock (flow oscillations) and boundary oscillations (flutter). Surface signatures will provide accurate information on the amplitude and frequency of the aerodynamic forcing functions, as well as the time lag between unsteady aerodynamic phenomena and the structural response of the test article. RAMS will provide flight-test researchers with an effective tool to obtain time-accurate unsteady coupling physics of the aerostructural system by sensing surface signatures coordinated with pressure, strains, and accelerations. With the proposed measurements there will be an entire force-response description of the aerostructural dynamics. RAMS will result in a comprehensive measurement technology that can be used for routine flutter flight-testing, CFD validation, development of new and advanced design tools, development of active aeroelastic wing (AAW), and the development of flutter warning and active control systems.