Design of a smart leading edge device for low speed wind tunnel tests in the European project SADE

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to describe the pre‐design and sizing of a smart leading edge section which is developed in the project SADE (Smart High Lift Devices for Next Generation Wings), which is part of the seventh framework program of the EU.Design/methodology/approachThe development of morphing technologies in SADE concentrates on the leading and trailing edge high‐lift devices. At the leading edge a smart gap and step‐less droop nose device is developed. For the landing flap a smart trailing edge of the flap is in the focus of the research activities. The main path in SADE follows the development of the leading edge section and the subsequent wind tunnel testing of a five meter span full‐scale section with a chord length of three meters in the wind tunnel T‐101 at the Russian central aero‐hydrodynamic institute (TsAGI) in Moscow.FindingsThe presented paper gives an overview over the desired performance and requirements of a smart leading edge device, its aerodynamic design for the wind tunnel tests and the structural pre‐design and sizing of the full‐scale leading edge section which will be tested in the wind tunnel.Originality/valueSADE aims at a major step forward in the development and evaluation of the potential of morphing airframe technologies.

Lessons learned from wind tunnel testing of a droop-nose morphing wingtip

“…A sequential design chain based on that of Kintscher et al 4 and Rudenko et al 5 was further developed in this work which begins with aerodynamic optimization and load data calculation (performed by project partners) before continuing into the structural design. The structural design chain starts with the skin design and the results at the end of this stage are transferred to the design domains of the compliant mechanisms which are designed via gradient-based topology optimization.…”

Evaluation of a Compliant Droop-Nose Morphing Wing Tip via Experimental Tests

“…A sequential design chain which is based on that of [5,24] was redeveloped to incorporate compliant mechanisms instead of conventional rigid link mechanisms, as shown in Fig. 2.…”

“…For larger aircraft such as passenger jetliners, a more feasible application has been the replacement of leading and trailing edge slats and flaps with morphing devices featuring smooth and gapless skins. In this manner further benefits may be achieved through a more laminar airflow leading to reduced drag as well as reduced airframe noise emissions [5,6,7]. An even further subset of morphing technology is the use of compliant mechanisms as carefully arranged flexible substructures supporting and driving the smooth skin.…”

“…The design of the morphing droop-nose followed a sequential design chain which includes aerodynamic, structural, manufacturing and assembly considerations. The new aspects of work in this design chain include the complete redevelopment of the 2D skin optimization tool used in [5,24] for 3D wing geometries, the development of continuum gradient-based topology optimization with an integrated stiffness-flexibility problem formulation for the design of the compliant mechanism, the various postprocessing tools to convert the optimization results into manufacturable formats, as well as novel manufacturing techniques and the use of smart materials. As mentioned, the purpose of the wind tunnel tests was not to quantify the aerodynamic benefits of the morphing device, but to assess the morphing structure under aerodynamic loads.…”

Design and Analysis of a Novel Mechanism for the Morphing of Trailing Edge of an Aircraft Wing

“…Since the conventional aerial vehicles are generally optimized for a certain flight regime, the imitation of the nature can provides increasing efficiency in fuel consumption and aerodynamic noise of the morphing air vehicles [2,3].…”