Space
Categories
Compact, Lightweight, and Efficient Piezo-Actuation Chain for aeronautical applications
19 June 2023
Many past and on-going studies are focusing on the use of piezo-actuators for aeronautical applications. One of the trendiest topics is the use of such devices for active flow control in aircraft, in order to reduce fuel consumption and noise. However, the implementation of such systems in aircraft suffer a lack of maturity with respect to aeronautical constraints, which are: high efficiency, compactness, and lightweight. In general, the actuators are composed of ceramics integrated in a metallic shell, which makes them heavy. For driving the actuators, the power amplifiers employed are usually linear amplifiers, which have a poor efficiency, leading to bulky designs due to large heatsinks. This paper presents recent developments that have been made to cope with these issues in order to obtain a piezo-actuation chain suitable for aeronautical applications.
Upgrade of miniature outrunner brushless DC motors
19 June 2023
Miniature Brushless DC motors (less than 5gr) offer some challenges both in the design and the manufacturing. They are used in several mass volume applications, such as hard disk drive, gyroscopes, and more recently in some unnamed aircraft vehicles (UAVs), where Cedrat is involved. For this last application, the efficiency is of upmost importance. Cedrat has used its Flux software solution to optimize the Brushless motor design: Some materials and dimensions have been changed in the motor to improve its efficiency.
Improving Lamb Wave detection for SHM using a dedicated LWDS electronics
19 June 2023
In the context of Condition Based Maintenance (CBM) for aircrafts, Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) is one main field of
research. Detection and localization of damages in a structure request reliability of the equipment and repeatability of the measurements and process. An electronic device called Lamb Wave Detection System (LWDS) have been developed and manufactured to manage piezo-electric patches either in emission or reception mode with a high commutation rate. Besides, integration of the piezo patches is another crucial aspect of reliability. Several methods as modelling and dispersion curves can define the frequency range of Lamb waves to optimize the piezo-electric coupling.
This work which takes part of the H2020 ReMAP project about adaptative aircraft maintenance planning, is presented in the article.
Valves based on amplified piezoelectric actuators
6 January 2002
Amplified Piezo Actuators have been developed at CEDRAT TECHNOLOGIES for several years. Their well – known advantages (rapid response and precise positioning) have been used in valve designs to obtain both rapid or fine proportional valves.
Semi-passive vibration control technique via shunting of Amplified Piezoelectric Actuators
12 January 2016
The objective of this paper is to provide results of an experimental and analytical investigation of Amplified Piezoelectric Actuators (APA) as vibrational isolator in a configuration of a mechanical Single Degree of Freedom system. The investigation is aimed at assessment of the mechanical properties modification ability via shunting techniques. The investigation consist of a phenomenological modelling of the APAs considered as generators and experimental verification of the vibrational energy dissipation ability in frequency domain. The results obtained during this investigation reveal that it is feasible to receive more than 20 dB reduction of the displacement amplification in the resonant range. Moreover, three tested examples of APA reveal up to 9 % of resonant frequency shift due to proper adjustment of the electronic shunting circuit, which is an encouragement for further analyses towards application of the APAs in semi-passive vibration control applications.
Electrical Tunable Low frequency miniature suspension
19 June 2023
Optical instruments such as interferometers and optical delay lines are sensitive to external vibrations and require a strong isolation of vibrations. Some products for active, semi active or passive isolation exist but are rather large which makes them much more suitable for lab applications than to embedded applications as meet in Space, Aircraft or Military applications in general, or in the space ICE CNES experiment. These requirements have driven the development of a new type of Electrically-Tunable Low-Frequency Miniature Suspension.
