Spatial Weighting of Smart Materials for Real-time Measurement of Aerodynamic Forces

Spatial weighting techniques are used to determine the apertures of a conformal smart material sensor required to measure aerodynamic forces on an aircraft wing section. Aperture shading with a linear weighting allows for the compilation of an aerodynamic center of pressure sensor. A technique is presented that allows the extraction of sectional aerodynamic forces, such as lift and drag, from appropriately shaped sensor electrodes. An example of the implementation of this sensor aperture weighting technique is given for a wing section with a NACA 0010 airfoil cross-section. It is shown that, given any airfoil cross-section, a unique lift and drag sensor aperture can be derived. Preliminary data from the testing of a prototype center of pressure sensor is presented. This sensor technology enables real-time measurement of aerodynamic forces in a free-flight testing environment.