Active flow control for aerospace operations by means of a dense wireless sensor and actuator network

This paper presents the design of an active flow control (AFC) system for commercial aircraft based on a dense wired/wireless sensor and actuator network. The goal is to track gradients of pressure across the surface of the fuselage of commercial aircraft. This collected information will be used to activate a set of actuators that will attempt to reduce the skin drag effect produced by the separation between laminar and turbulent flows. This will be translated into increased lift-off forces, higher speeds, longer ranges and reduced fuel consumption. The paper describes the architecture of the system in the context of the European research project DEWI (dependable embedded wireless infrastructure) using the concept of the DEWI Bubble. A simulator architecture is also proposed to model each process of the AFC system and the DEWI Bubble. To the best of our knowledge this is the first approach towards the use of wireless sensor technologies in the field of active flow control.