Design and Experiment of a Seamless Morphing Trailing Edge

The implementation of morphing wing applications in aircraft design has sparked significant interest as it enables the dimensional properties of the aircraft to be modified during flight. By allowing manipulation of the 2D and 3D parameters on the aircraft’s wings, tail surfaces, or fuselage, a variety of possibilities have arisen. Two primary schools of thought have emerged in the field of morphing wing applications: the mechanisms school and the smart surfaces approach that uses shape-memory materials and smart actuators. Among the research in this field, the Fishbone Active Camber (FishBAC) approach has emerged as a promising avenue for controlling the deflection of the wing’s trailing edge. This study revisits previous research on morphing wings and the FishBAC concept, evaluates the current state of the field, and presents an original design process flow that includes the design of a unique and innovative UAV called the Stingray within the scope of the study. A novel morphing concept developed for the Stingray UAV, Rear Spar Articulated Wing Camber (RSAWC), employs a fishbone-like morphing wing rib design with rear spar articulation in a cost-effective manner. The design process and flight tests of the RSAWC are presented and directly compared with a conventional wing. Results are evaluated based on performance, weight, cost, and complexity. Semi-empirical data from the flight testing of the concept resulted in approximately a 19% flight endurance increment. The study also presents future directions of research on the RSAWC concept to guide the researchers.

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“…Cheng et al [69] designed a seamless morphing wing application. Their study focused on load bearing capability of the morphing trailing edge.…”

Section: Out-of-plane Morphing/spanwise Bendingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unleashing the Potential of Morphing Wings: A Novel Cost Effective Morphing Method for UAV Surfaces, Rear Spar Articulated Wing Camber

Ozbek

Ekici

Karakoç

2023

Drones

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“…The morphing aircraft achieves a good balance between stability and maneuverability. It can change its aerodynamic shape according to the flight environment and mission profile and obtain the best aerodynamic performance and flight state [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Research on the Performance of Slender Aircraft with Flare-Stabilized-Skirt

Pan,

Yue,

Liu

et al. 2023

Aerospace

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In this paper, a morphing aircraft with a deployable flared skirt is proposed, and the influence of the flare skirt on the static stability of hypersonic aircraft is studied. The theoretical model of static stability of slender aircraft is established, and the position of the center of pressure can be used as a theoretical basis to measure static stability. Three-dimensional compressible Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) solver and an SST k-ω turbulence model are used to analyze the aerodynamic characteristics of the aircraft and the influence effect of the flared skirt on the pressure distribution of the body, and the influence trend on the position of the pressure center is verified. At the same time, the reliability of the code and grid is verified by a classic example, and the results are in good agreement with the experimental data in the current literature. Finally, the static stability of an aircraft with flared skirts with different deployment angles is quantitatively measured by defining the stability derivative at the common point. The results show that the static stability of the aircraft with the same forebody is improved by more than 100% under different flight Mach numbers when the flared skirt deployment angle is 30° compared to 0°.

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“…However, the majority of the studies carried out so far on morphing wing devices deals with structural and material issues mainly, along with aerodynamic performance [16,17]. From the point of view of flight dynamics, there is a substantial difference whether the geometry variation due to morphing aims to achieve maximum performance in the various flight phases or to replace the traditional surfaces for controlling the aircraft.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

A Preliminary Evaluation of Morphing Horizontal Tail Design for UAVs

Montano,

Dimino,

Milazzo

2024

Aerospace

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Morphing structures are a relatively new aircraft technology currently being investigated for a variety of applications, from civil to military. Despite the lack of literature maturity and its complexity, morphing wings offer significant aerodynamic benefits over a wide range of flight conditions, enabling reduced aircraft fuel consumption and airframe noise, longer range and higher efficiency. The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of morphing horizontal tail design on aircraft performance and flight mechanics. This study is conducted on a 1:5 scale model of a Preceptor N-3 Pup at its trim condition, of which the longitudinal dynamics is implemented in MATLAB. Starting from the original horizontal tail airfoil NACA 0012 with the elevator deflected at the trim value, this is modified by using the X-Foil tool to obtain a smooth morphing airfoil trailing edge shape with the same CLα. By comparing both configurations and their influence on the whole aircraft, the resulting improvements are evaluated in terms of stability in the short-period mode, reduction in the parasitic drag coefficient CD0, and increased endurance at various altitudes.

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Design and Experiment of a Seamless Morphing Trailing Edge

Cited by 3 publications

References 25 publications

Unleashing the Potential of Morphing Wings: A Novel Cost Effective Morphing Method for UAV Surfaces, Rear Spar Articulated Wing Camber

Unleashing the Potential of Morphing Wings: A Novel Cost Effective Morphing Method for UAV Surfaces, Rear Spar Articulated Wing Camber

Research on the Performance of Slender Aircraft with Flare-Stabilized-Skirt

A Preliminary Evaluation of Morphing Horizontal Tail Design for UAVs

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