AFRL Research Team Awarded for International Collaborative Effort

  • Published
  • By Air Vehicles Directorate
  • AFRL/VA
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio --  Members of an AFRL-led cooperative program team that developed the Next-Generation Active Buffeting Induced-Stress Suppression System earned The Technical CooperationProgram (TTCP) Team Achievement Award for their efforts towards creating a vibration suppression system with the potential for extending the fatigue life of high-performance aircraft components. The team included researchers from AFRL's Air Vehicles Directorate, as well as participants from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Boeing, and various research teams from Canada and Australia. 

The AFRL team's objective was to demonstrate an active control approach to the shared, technically challenging problem of structural life extension. The researchers chose to investigate the application of an active buffeting alleviation system for reducing the oscillations--or buffeting--endured by the vertical fin of F/A-18 aircraft flown at high angles of attack. The team sought to counter the harmful buffeting by applying active suppression through surface-bonded piezoelectric actuators and incorporating the existing rudder hardware. 

Researchers tested the hybrid buffet suppression system on a full-scale F/A-18 vertical fin and fuselage structure at the Defence Science and Technology Office's International Follow-On Structural Test Project facility (Melbourne, Australia). Results showed significant reduction of buffeting and demonstrated that the hybrid suppression system, as well as each actuator system, individually offers a viable solution to buffeting or other vibration-related problems. For their efforts, the team members received the prestigious TTCP Team Achievement Award, an honor presented annually for projects that best exemplify the intent of cooperative programs. TTCP is an international organization that collaborates in defense scientific and technical information exchange. Member nations include the US, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.