Piezoelectric metapanels for enhanced aeroelastic performance

Vibration and stability are typical issues of aircraft structures operating under extreme conditions, such as panels in supersonic flight. Passive control techniques have been investigated to enhance the aeroelastic performance of supersonic panels. Compared to active control techniques, passive ones are relatively simpler to design and usually have low power consumption. Considering the aeroelastic behavior of panels, most of the passive control cases explored in the literature are achieved by adding mechanical elements, e.g. stiffeners and additional layers of materials. Because the properties of the mechanical elements are not easy to adjust, smart materials can be more suitable for a changing vibration environment. In this sense, this work uses piezoelectric material to design supersonic smart metapanels. An electromechanically coupled finite element based on Kirchhoff plate theory is developed to model the electroelastic metamaterial composed of a metallic plate with an array of piezoelectric elements, each one connected to a linear shunt circuit. The piston theory is used for aerodynamics in supersonic regime. Different shunt circuits are employed to tune the plate to different frequencies. The results show that, based on the electrical domain configuration of the piezoelectric metamaterial panel, the aeroelastic behavior can be enhanced by increasing the flutter boundary.