The drag coefficient and the laminar-to-turbulent transition for the aerofoil component of a wing model are optimised using an adaptive upper surface with two actuation points. The effects of the new shaped aerofoils on the global drag coefficient of the wing model are also studied. The aerofoil was optimised with an 'in-house' genetic algorithm program coupled with a cubic spline aerofoil shape reconstruction and XFoil 6.96 open-source aerodynamic solver. The wing model analysis was performed with the open-source solver XFLR5 and the 3D Panel Method was used for the aerodynamic calculation. The results of the aerofoil optimisation indicate improvements of both the drag coefficient and transition delay of 2% to 4%. These improvements in the aerofoil characteristics affect the global drag of the wing model, reducing it by up to 2%. The analyses were conducted for a single Reynolds number and speed over a range of angles of attack. The same cases will also be used in the experimental testing of the manufactured morphing wing model.

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An experimental validation of an optimised wing geometry in the Price-Païdoussis subsonic wind tunnel is presented. Two wing models were manufactured using optimised glass fibre composite and tested at three speeds and various angle-of-attack. These wing models were constructed based on the original aerofoil shape of the ATR 42 aircraft and an optimised version of the same aerofoil for a flight condition of Mach number equal to 0.1 and angle-of-attack of 0°. The aerofoil's optimisation was realised using an ‘in-house’ genetic algorithm coupled with a cubic spline reconstruction routine, and was analysed using XFoil aerodynamic solver. The optimisation was concentrated on improving the laminar flow on the upper surface of the wing, between 10% and 70% of the chord. XFoil-predicted pressure distributions were compared with experimental data obtained in the wind tunnel. The transition position was estimated from the experimental pressure data using a second derivative methodology and was compared with the transition predicted by XFoil code. The results have shown the agreement between numerical and experimental data. The wind-tunnel tests have shown that the improvement of the laminar flow of the optimised wing is higher than the value predicted numerically.

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