Enhanced Range and Endurance Evaluation of a Camber Morphing Wing Aircraft

Abstract

Flight range, endurance, maneuverability, and agility are the key elements that determine an aircraft’s performance. Both conventional and morphing wing aircraft have been well studied and estimated in all aspects of performance. When considering the performance of morphing aircraft, most works address aspects of the aerodynamical performance such as L and D as well as flight envelopes for flight dynamics and control perspectives. However, the actual benefits of adopting morphing technologies in practical aspects such as aircraft operation, mission planning, and sustainability have not been addressed so far. Thus, this paper addresses the practical aspect of the benefits when adopting a camber morphing wing aircraft. Identical geometrical and computational conditions were applied to an already-existing aircraft: the RQ-7a Shadow. The wing structure was switched between a fixed wing and a camber morphing wing to generate conventional and morphing wing geometries. The fixed-wing cases had varying flap deflection angles, and the camber morphing wing cases had varying camber rates from 4% to 8%. Once the CL values of the fixed and morphing wing cases were matched up to two significant figures, the CD and CL/CD were analyzed for these matching cases to calculate the flight endurance, range, and improvement. When NACA 6410 is adopted, a 17% improvement in flight range and endurance average was expected. In the case of NACA 8410, an average 60% improvement was expected.

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

“…In a recent study, Jo and Majid [68] performed an analysis of the effects of camber morphing for an existing aircraft, RQ-7a Shadow. Computational fluid dynamics analysis was applied for both the fixed wing and the morphing wing.…”

An Experimental and Simulation Study of the Active Camber Morphing Concept on Airfoils Using Bio-Inspired Structures

“…Morphing technology encompasses material selection and analysis, structure and solid mechanics developments, smart materials for actuation and conventional actuators for morphing. In a case of morphing wing analysis, authors conducted analytical and experimental modeling, validation, performance and characteristics analysis and aero elasticity analysis [ 14 ]. Most of the prior research on aeronautical morphing structures has been on camber-morphing wings and adaptive trailing-edge technologies [ 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 ].…”

“…Traditional aircraft use trailing-edge discrete surfaces to adjust the camber of the wing, but camber-morphing surfaces give a seamless shape with no extra gaps, avoiding the huge drag profiles associated with traditional control surfaces. Majid and Jo [ 14 ] compared the aerodynamic performance of camber-morphing and conventional airfoils. This study demonstrated the advantages of variable camber-morphing wings over conventional wings, demonstrating their superiority in terms of aerodynamic efficiency, agility and maneuverability.…”

“…This study demonstrated the advantages of variable camber-morphing wings over conventional wings, demonstrating their superiority in terms of aerodynamic efficiency, agility and maneuverability. Substantial study has also been undertaken to propose camber-morphing rib designs [ 10 , 14 , 15 , 16 ]. Woods and Friswell [ 22 ] introduced the fish bone active camber (FishBAC) concept in one of their contributions in 2012.…”

Impacts of Tapered Wingtip on Lateral-Directional Stability Coefficients of a Morphing Fixed-wing UAV

“…Parancheerivilakkathil et al proposed a multiple morphing application that includes an active wing span increment and passively wing pitch angle alteration and provided improvement in aerodynamic performance and bending moment (Parancheerivilakkathil et al, 2022). RQ-7a Shadow unmanned aerial vehicle is redesigned with a camber morphing airfoil by Jo and Majid and they obtained aerodynamic performance improvement of up to 60% (Jo and Majid, 2023). Such studies in the literature emphasize the importance of investigating new morphing scenarios and designs in terms of stability, control, or aerodynamic considerations and discovering their potential.…”