A Microfabricated Actuator for Active Flow Control on Aircraft

Objective

This is a proposal for the design, manufacture and testing of an innovative prototype microfabricated pulsed flow control actuator for implementation at aircraft scale.
The innovative actuator concept is one that was originally developed under previous EU RTD projects (AEROMEMS and AEROMEMSII) and demonstrated to achieve exit velocities in excess of 300 m/s at frequencies ranging between 0 and 1kHz through a 45 degree pitched orifice having a diameter of 0.4mm.
This proposal extends the design of the actuator to demonstrating the required performance through a 1mm diameter orifice (as requested by CfP) and to the improvement of the fabrication processes to reduce costs and to increase production yield to levels in excess of 80%.
The proposal involves demonstration of innovative manufacturing techniques to improve the accuracy of rapid grinding methods for brittle ceramics, demonstrate the use of pico- and femto-second pulsed lasers for low-damage cutting of ceramic/metallic sandwich structures and to improvement of electrical connections within the actuator.
The work entails the design, fabrication and testing of the actuator and will build on significant experience and past investment. The maturity of the current actuator design concept, particularly with respect to the consideration of aircraft integration and a large range of environmental testing that has been undertaken will provide a low-risk route to realising a concept that will be close to practical implementation.
During the design process advanced computational analysis tools will be used to evaluate the performance and effectiveness of the actuator and build upon the already considerable results and experience already gained.
The multi-disciplinary team that will deliver this project has many years experience in the development of micro-fabricated sensors and actuators for flow control applications on aircraft and has the skills, tools and facilities necessary for a successful project.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.

• engineering and technology mechanical engineering vehicle engineering aerospace engineering aircraft
• natural sciences physical sciences classical mechanics fluid mechanics fluid dynamics
• engineering and technology electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering electronic engineering sensors
• natural sciences physical sciences optics laser physics pulsed lasers
• engineering and technology materials engineering ceramics

Programme(s)

Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.

• FP7-JTI - Specific Programme "Cooperation": Joint Technology Initiatives

Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

• JTI-CS-2010-1-SFWA-01-015 - Development and test of a fluidic actuator prototype (MEMS type) on aircraft level

Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

SP1-JTI-CS-2010-01
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Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

JTI-CS - Joint Technology Initiatives - Clean Sky

Coordinator