Experimental Investigation into Articulated Winglet Effects on Flying Wing Surface Pressure Aerodynamics

Gatto, A.; Bourdin, P.; Friswell, Michael I.

doi:10.2514/1.c000251

Cited by 18 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…A morphing UAV aircraft was successfully flight tested. Bourdin et al (2008) and Gatto et al (2010) investigated the use of variable-cant angle winglets for morphing aircraft control. A pair of winglets with adaptive cant angle were mounted at the tips of a flying wing and actuated independently.…”

Section: Dihedral/gullmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Review of Morphing Aircraft

Barbarino

Bilgen

Ajaj

et al. 2011

Journal of Intelligent Material Systems and Structures

1,134

647

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Aircraft wings are a compromise that allows the aircraft to fly at a range of flight conditions, but the performance at each condition is sub-optimal. The ability of a wing surface to change its geometry during flight has interested researchers and designers over the years as this reduces the design compromises required. Morphing is the short form for metamorphose; however, there is neither an exact definition nor an agreement between the researchers about the type or the extent of the geometrical changes necessary to qualify an aircraft for the title ‘shape morphing.’ Geometrical parameters that can be affected by morphing solutions can be categorized into: planform alteration (span, sweep, and chord), out-of-plane transformation (twist, dihedral/gull, and span-wise bending), and airfoil adjustment (camber and thickness). Changing the wing shape or geometry is not new. Historically, morphing solutions always led to penalties in terms of cost, complexity, or weight, although in certain circumstances, these were overcome by system-level benefits. The current trend for highly efficient and ‘green’ aircraft makes such compromises less acceptable, calling for innovative morphing designs able to provide more benefits and fewer drawbacks. Recent developments in ‘smart’ materials may overcome the limitations and enhance the benefits from existing design solutions. The challenge is to design a structure that is capable of withstanding the prescribed loads, but is also able to change its shape: ideally, there should be no distinction between the structure and the actuation system. The blending of morphing and smart structures in an integrated approach requires multi-disciplinary thinking from the early development, which significantly increases the overall complexity, even at the preliminary design stage. Morphing is a promising enabling technology for the future, next-generation aircraft. However, manufacturers and end users are still too skeptical of the benefits to adopt morphing in the near future. Many developed concepts have a technology readiness level that is still very low. The recent explosive growth of satellite services means that UAVs are the technology of choice for many investigations on wing morphing. This article presents a review of the state-of-the-art on morphing aircraft and focuses on structural, shape-changing morphing concepts for both fixed and rotary wings, with particular reference to active systems. Inflatable solutions have been not considered, and skin issues and challenges are not discussed in detail. Although many interesting concepts have been synthesized, few have progressed to wing tunnel testing, and even fewer have flown. Furthermore, any successful wing morphing system must overcome the weight penalty due to the additional actuation systems.

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Section: Dihedral/gullmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Review of Morphing Aircraft

Barbarino

Bilgen

Ajaj

et al. 2011

Journal of Intelligent Material Systems and Structures

1,134

647

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Proof of this can be found in the significant number of studies available in the current literature. Bourdin et al [20,21] and Alvin et al [22] investigated the adjustable cant angled winglets to increase aerodynamic performance and control of a flying wing aerial vehicles. The concept consists of a pair of winglets with an adjustable cant angle, independently actuated and mounted at the tips of a baseline flying wing.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effectiveness of Twist Morphing Wing on Aerodynamic Performance and Control of an Aircraft

Kaygan

Ulusoy

2018

Journal of Aviation

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In this paper, effectiveness of twist varied wing configurations for aircraft control and performance is described. The primary variables investigated involved changing the wing twist angle of a comparable Airbus A320 wing structure by identifying the ideal angle of twist. The aerodynamic performance and control of the morphing wing is characterised in AVL (Athena Vortex Lattice Method). In order to better understand the aerodynamic performance and control of twist morphing wing for diverse flight regimes, predetermined values of twist (-8°< ϕ <8°, in steps of ±2°) were examined. The results from this work indicate that if morphing wings were employed on aircraft, performance benefits could be achieved.

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“…In [2] and [15], a canted winglet concept whose actuation mechanism is similar to ours was demonstrated; however, its function was different in that it was used for roll control rather than yaw control.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 84%

Novel Dihedral-Based Control of Flapping-Wing Aircraft With Application to Perching

2013

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Abstract-We describe the design of an aerial robot inspired by birds and the underlying theoretical developments leading to novel control and closed-loop guidance algorithms for a perching maneuver. A unique feature of this robot is that it uses wing articulation to control the flight path angle as well as the heading angle. It lacks a vertical tail for improved agility, which results in unstable lateraldirectional dynamics. New closed-loop motion planning algorithms with guaranteed stability are obtained by rewriting the flight dynamic equations in the spatial domain rather than as functions of time, after which dynamic inversion is employed. It is shown that nonlinear dynamic inversion naturally leads to proportionalintegral-derivative controllers, thereby providing an exact method for tuning the gains. The capabilities of the proposed bioinspired robot design and its novel closed-loop perching controller have been successfully demonstrated with perched landings on a human hand.

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Experimental Investigation into Articulated Winglet Effects on Flying Wing Surface Pressure Aerodynamics

Cited by 18 publications

References 8 publications

A Review of Morphing Aircraft

A Review of Morphing Aircraft

Effectiveness of Twist Morphing Wing on Aerodynamic Performance and Control of an Aircraft

Novel Dihedral-Based Control of Flapping-Wing Aircraft With Application to Perching

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