Transient Aeroelastic Responses of Folding Wing in Morphing Motion

Abstract

To investigate the transient aeroelastic responses of a folding wing during morphing motion, a time-varying aeroelastic equation in state space is presented. The structural model is established based on the component modal synthesis method. A time-dependent transformation is introduced to establish the compatibility equations. The aerodynamic force is obtained by double lattice method, and then the rational function fitting method is adopted to deduce the approximate expressions of the aerodynamic force in time domain which is used in conjunction with the structural model. The equations of motion in state space are solved using the Runge-Kutta numerical integration technique to predict the transient aeroelastic responses. The effects of the flow velocity and the morphing velocity are studied to deeply understand the aeroelastic characteristics of a folding wing. The numerical results indicate that the aerodynamic force contributes to the morphing motion. With a greater flow velocity or a slower morphing motion, the reaction moment will decrease. So a better aeroelastic performance can been obtained.

Recent developments in the aeroelasticity of morphing aircraft

“…Ni et al [82] presented a time-varying aeroelastic state-space equation to study the transient aeroelastic behavior of a folding wing during morphing. MSC.Nastran was used for structural modelling.…”

“…Sleesongsom and Bureerat [71] studied the impact of actuation on the aeroelastic behavior of a twist-morphing wing. Ni et al [82] investigated the effect of morphing rate on the aeroelastic performance of a folding wing. Cheung et al [104] studied the effect of actuation frequency on the wing root bending moment of a folding wingtip.…”