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Active Flow Control with Adaptive Design Techniques for Improved Aircraft Safety

Award Information
Agency: National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Branch: N/A
Contract: NND08AA58C
Agency Tracking Number: 050169
Amount: $599,857.00
Phase: Phase II
Program: STTR
Solicitation Topic Code: T2.02
Solicitation Number: N/A
Timeline
Solicitation Year: 2005
Award Year: 2008
Award Start Date (Proposal Award Date): 2008-01-01
Award End Date (Contract End Date): 2009-12-31
Small Business Information
1410 Sachem Place, Suite 202
Charlottesville, VA 22901-2559
United States
DUNS: 120839477
HUBZone Owned: No
Woman Owned: No
Socially and Economically Disadvantaged: No
Principal Investigator
 Jason Burkholder
 Principal Investigator
 () -
 burkholder@bainet.com
Business Contact
 Connie Hoover
Title: Business Official
Phone: (434) 973-1215
Email: hoover@bainet.com
Research Institution
 University of Virginia
 Not Available
 
PO Box 400195
Charlottesville, VA 22904
United States

 (434) 924-4270
 Domestic Nonprofit Research Organization
Abstract

The overall objective of this STTR effort is to evaluate and demonstrate the potential for well-designed, strategically-located synthetic jet actuators to provide improved aircraft safety by: (1) delaying wing stall and improving aircraft controllability at high angles of attack and (2) providing low-cost actuation redun-dancy to improve controllability in the event of a mechanical control surface failure. Delaying flow separa-tion (i.e., wing stall) and providing "back-up" control power could allow an aircraft to recover from adverse conditions (due to a control surface failure, pilot/autopilot error, etc.) that would otherwise result in a loss of control.
Flow control studies have shown that synthetic jet actuators are efficient devices for controlling separated internal and external flows. However, an obstacle to the widespread application of synthetic jet actuators for practical flight control is that modulated input signals to achieve closed-loop flow control objectives have been shown to be complex. Barron Associates, the University of Virginia, and the University of Wyoming propose to develop a software toolbox for the creation of adaptive control systems for actuators having complex, nonlinear dynamics. The Phase II effort will culminate in a wind tunnel test that quanti-fies the safety improvement potential offered by adaptively-controlled synthetic jet actuators.

* Information listed above is at the time of submission. *

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