Aeroelastic control of smart composite plate with delaminations

In this paper, aeroelastic performance of smart composite wing in the presence of delaminations is investigated. A control system is designed to enhance the dynamic stability of the delaminated composite wing. The refined higher order theory for analyzing an adaptive composite plate in the presence of delaminations is used. The theory accurately captures the transverse shear deformation through the thickness, which is important in anisotropic composites, particularly in the presence of discrete actuators and sensors and delaminations. The effects of delamination on the aeroelastic characteristics of composite plates are investigated. An active control system is designed to redistribute the loads and to minimize the effect of delamination. The pole placement technique is applied to design the closed loop system by utilizing piezoelectric actuators. Due to delamination, the significant changes in the natural frequencies of the lower modes are observed. This causes the reduction on the flutter speed of the delaminated plate model. The aeroelastic control results show that controller makes the delaminated plate model behave like a normal plate. The controller also reduces a significant amount of the root mean square values of the gust response due to gust.