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High-Temperature Actuator Shaft Design for Supersonic Aircraft

Company: The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory

Major(s):
Primary: ME
Secondary: MATSE

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: NO

CONTEXT: Control surfaces (e.g. actuated fins) of supersonic flight vehicles experience large mechanical and thermal loads from extreme aerodynamic environments. These loads are transmitted through the actuator shaft, which must be strong enough to bear mechanical load and prevent large thermal loads from reaching sensitive servomechanisms used to power control surfaces. As flight vehicles fly faster and pull increasingly aggressive maneuvers, there is an increasing need for designs to be high strength, attenuate stressing thermal load, and be minimize weight. CHALLENGE CONTEXT: Design, analyze, and test a next-generation control surface actuator shaft to achieve strength and thermal resistance to a defined loading scenario that minimizes structural weight. TECHNICAL APPROACH: - Explore methods to reduce weight such as topologically optimized structures under prescribed loading - Explore novel materials and/or design morphologies that enable high strength, high thermal resistance, and reduced weight at high temperatures - Utilize state-of-the-art manufacturing methods, such as additive manufacturing to produce a prototype actuator shaft - Develop and execute mechanical and thermal tests to validate the performance of a prototype actual shaft DELIVERABLES: - Conceptual design and prototype of a high strength, thermally resistant, and lightweight control surface actuator shaft - Data products from lab-scale mechanical and thermal testing of the prototype shaft - Thermal-mechanical analysis of the final design with comparisons between strength, thermal resistance, and mass relative to an APL-provided baseline component