Passive control of the flutter instability on a two-degrees-of-freedom system with pseudoelastic shape-memory alloy springs.

A passive control of aeroelastic instabilities on a two-degrees-of-freedom (dofs) system is considered here using shape memory alloys (SMA) springs in their pseudo-elastic regime. SMA present a solid-solid phase change that allow them to face strong deformations (∼ 10%); in the pseudo-elastic regime, an hysteresis loop appears in the stress-strain relationship which in turn gives rise to an important amount of dissipated energy. This property makes the SMA a natural candidate for damping undesired vibrations in a passive manner. A 2-dofs system is here used to model the classical flutter instability of a wing section in an uniform flow. The SMA spring is selected on the pitch mode in order to dissipate energy of the predominant motion. A simple model for the SMA hysteresis loop is introduced, allowing for a quantitative study of the important parameters to optimize in view of an experimental design.