Patent attributes
A method and apparatus for an adaptive aerostructure is presented that relies on certified aerospace materials and can therefore be applied in conventional passenger aircraft. This structure consists of a honeycomb material which cells extend over a significant length perpendicular to the plane of the cells. Each of the cells contains an inelastic pouch (or bladder) that forms a circular tube when the cell forms a perfect hexagon. By changing the cell differential pressure (CDP) the stiffness of the honeycomb can be altered. Using an external force or the elastic force within the honeycomb material, the honeycomb can be deformed such that the cells deviate from their perfect-hexagonal shape. It can be shown that by increasing the CDP, the structure eventually returns to a perfect hexagon. By doing so, a fully embedded pneumatic actuator is created that can perform work and substitute conventional low-bandwidth flight control actuators. It is shown that two approaches can be taken to regulate the stiffness of this embedded actuator.
