Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2016 Sep;53(5):1305-1316.
doi: 10.2514/1.C033490. Epub 2016 Mar 10.

Optimum Wing Shape Determination of Highly Flexible Morphing Aircraft for Improved Flight Performance

Weihua Su  1 , Sean Shan-Min Swei  2 , Guoming G Zhu  3
Affiliations

Optimum Wing Shape Determination of Highly Flexible Morphing Aircraft for Improved Flight Performance

Weihua Su et al. J Aircr. 2016 Sep.

Abstract

In this paper, optimum wing bending and torsion deformations are explored for a mission adaptive, highly flexible morphing aircraft. The complete highly flexible aircraft is modeled using a strain-based geometrically nonlinear beam formulation, coupled with unsteady aerodynamics and 6-dof rigid-body motions. Since there are no conventional discrete control surfaces for trimming the flexible aircraft, the design space for searching the optimum wing geometries is enlarged. To achieve high performance flight, the wing geometry is best tailored according to the specific flight mission needs. In this study, the steady level flight and the coordinated turn flight are considered, and the optimum wing deformations with the minimum drag at these flight conditions are searched by utilizing a modal-based optimization procedure, subject to the trim and other constraints. The numerical study verifies the feasibility of the modal-based optimization approach, and shows the resulting optimum wing configuration and its sensitivity under different flight profiles.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1. Basic beam reference frames
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Airfoil coordinate systems and velocity components.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Flowchart of trim of level flight with defined control parameters.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Geometrical data of the baseline highly flexible aircraft.
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Trimmed baseline aircraft for straight and level flight at 20,000 altitude.
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
Trimmed baseline aircraft for steady coordinated turn at 20,000 altitude.
Fig. 7
Fig. 7
Magnitudes of symmetric modes in the optimum shape for steady and level flight.
Fig. 8
Fig. 8
Optimum wing shape for steady and level flight with constraint C1.
Fig. 9
Fig. 9
Optimum wing shape for steady and level flight with constraints C1 and C2.
Fig. 10
Fig. 10
Optimum wing shape for steady and level flight with constraints C1, C2, and C3.
Fig. 11
Fig. 11
Optimum wing shape for steady and level flight with constraints C1, C2, and C3; flight speed is a variable.
Fig. 12
Fig. 12
Optimum wing shape for steady and level flight with constraints C2, C3, and C4; flight speed is fixed.
Fig. 13
Fig. 13
Optimum wing shape for steady and level flight with constraints C2, C3, and C4; flight speed is variable.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Cesnik CES, Brown EL. “Modeling of High Aspect Ratio Active Flexible Wings for Roll Control,” AIAA-2002–1719. 43rd AIAA/ASME/ASCE/AHS/ASC Structures, Structural Dynamics, and Materials Conference; Denver, Colorado. Apr. 22-25, 2002.
    1. Cesnik CES, Brown EL. “Active Wing Warping Control of a Joined-Wing Airplane Configuration,” AIAA-2003-1715. 44th AIAA/ASME/ASCE/AHS/ASC Structures, Structural Dynamics, and Materials Conference; Norfolk, Virginia. Apr. 7-10, 2003.
    1. Hetrick J, Osborn R, Kota S, Flick P, Paul D. “Flight Testing of Mission Adaptive Compliant Wing,” AIAA-2007-1709. 48th AIAA/ASME/ASCE/AHS/ASC Structures, Structural Dynamics, and Materials Conference; Honolulu, HI. Apr. 23-26, 2007.
    1. Kota S, Osborn R, Ervin G, Maric D, Flick P, Paul D. RTO Applied Vehicle Technology Panel (AVT) Symposium RTO-MP-AVT-168. Evora, Portugal: Apr 20-24, 2009. Mission Adaptive Compliant Wing - Design, Fabrication and Flight Test.
    1. Bilgen O, Kochersberger KB, Inman DJ, Ohanian OJ. Novel, Bidirectional, Variable-Camber Airfoil via Macro-Fiber Composite Actuators. Journal of Aircraft. 2010;47(1):303–314. doi: 10.2514/1.45452. - DOI

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources