A Cross Reference Analysis of Adaptive Piezoelectric Actuator Reinforced Slender Airframes for Microsatellite Launch Vehicles

Abstract

This work develops and simulates the virtual prototype of a conceptual variable modulus airframe for slender microsatellite launch vehicles. To modulate stiffness, piezoelectric transducers are scientifically positioned at the zeros of the derivatives of the slender airframe shape functions. These transducers are actuated by a Proportional Derivative type control law such that the overall system is globally asymptotically stable in the sense of Lyapunov. By considering typical in-flight parameters, the performance of the conceptual synthetic adaptive airframe is studied in comparison with identical airframe that is made of advanced aerospace composites. Simulation results show that for slender beams with aspect ratios; 10, 12 and 15 respectively, the initial amplitudes of vibrations were effectively damped by factors of 85.95%, 3.02% and 6.06% at the instance of piezoelectric reinforcement. At steady states, in the listed order of aspect ratios, the percentage residual amplitudes of the slender beam’s oscillations are 1.53%, 48.34% and 46.55%, respectively. In effect, the conceptual adaptive slender airframe demonstrated very good potential for possible utilization on microsatellite launch vehicles.