Design and verification of piezoelectric actuation system for compressor active flow control system

A dual-stack amplified piezoelectric actuator that can be deployed inside the compressor casing was devised to improve the performance of the active flow control (AFC) system for aero-engine compressors. A multi-field coupled dynamic model accounting for operational conditions and preload forces was established based on the thermopiezoelectric constitutive equations and the generalized Hamilton’s principle. Supporting upstream and downstream components for the actuator were designed, culminating in the fabrication of a functional actuator prototype and a hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) performance verification platform. The test platform simulated compressor bleed environments with pressures of 0.1-0.5 MPa and temperatures up to 80 °C. The accuracy of the model was validated by experimental results showing that, under 1-200 Hz mixed-frequency signals, the average tracking errors between the test data and model predictions for the piezoelectric actuator were 2.5% and 4.1% at working conditions of 0.3 MPa, 55 °C and 0.5 MPa, 80 °C, respectively, with maximum errors of 4.3% and 7.1%. In AFC injection flow tests, the system achieved a peak flow rate of 59.6 g/s within 2.5 ms, confirming the high-frequency response characteristics of the piezoelectric actuation system and demonstrating the practical value of the AFC system in enhancing compressor performance.