Investigation of Smart Nano Rotor with Continuous Trailing Edge Flap Driven by Electroactive Polymer

Nano Air Vehicle (NAV) is widely used in the military, production, scientific research, and other fields. Meanwhile rotor thrust control methods widely used currently include using a controllable pitch propeller hub which has a complex structure with large mass, or a variable speed motor which leads to lower energy conversion efficiency. In order to obtain a rotor thrust control method with a simple structure and low additive mass, meanwhile won’t cause overconsumption of energy, a novel electroactive polymer is used as driving material to design a smart nano rotor with continuous variable trailing edge flap. When electric field is applied to the electroactive polymer driver, the continuous variable flaps at the trailing edge of the blades are driven to bending and thus change the thrust of the rotor. The mechanical parameters and electrostriction properties of the electroactive polymer materials were studied by experiments. A fluid-electric-structure multi-field coupling method is used to study the aerodynamic characteristics of a smart nano rotor with a continuous variable trailing edge flap driven by electroactive material under the control of active electric field. It is found that when the control voltage is 1000 V, the blade trailing edge was effectively driven by electroactive polymer to produce bending deformation, which led to the pressure difference between upper and lower blade surfaces increasing significantly. The Thrust of the rotor was increased by 17.20%. The results show that the continuous variable trailing edge flaps driven by electroactive polymer can effectively control blade lift without affecting rotor aerodynamic efficiency, which is a kind of thrust control method with good potential for nano rotors.