Ronald C M Cheung

Design of a Morphing Wing tip

An initial design of a morphing wingtip for a regional jet aircraft is developed and evaluated. The adaptive wingtip concept is based upon a chiral-type internal structure, enabling controlled cant angle orientation, camber, and twist throughout the flight envelope. A baseline turbofan aircraft configuration model is used as the benchmark to assess the device. Computational fluid dynamics based aerodynamics are used to evaluate the required design configurations for the device at different points across the flight envelope in terms of lift/drag and bending moment distribution along the span, complemented by panel-method-based gust load computations. Detailed studies are performed to show how the chiral structure can facilitate the required shape changes in twist, camber, and cant. Actuator requirements and limitations are assessed, along with an evaluation of the aerodynamic gains from the inclusion of the device versus power and weight penalties. For a typical mission, it was found that savings of around...

Testing of a Hinged Wingtip Device for Gust Loads Alleviation

Recent aircraft designs have considered higher-aspect-ratio wings to reduce induced drag for improved fuel efficiency; however, to remain compliant with airport gate requirements, folding wingtips ...

Active and Passive Smart Structures and Integrated Systems 2016

This work presents the lessons learned from wind tunnel tests of a droop-nose morphing wingtip as part of the EU project NOVEMOR. The design followed a sequential chain and was largely driven through optimization tools, including a glass-fiber composite skin optimization tool and a topology optimization tool for the design of internal super-elastic and aluminium compliant mechanisms. The device was tested in the low speed tunnel at the University of Bristol to determine the structural response under aerodynamic loading. Measurements of strain from strain gauges show that the structure is capable of handing the aerodynamic loads though also show an imbalance of strain between the components. Measurements of surface pressures show a small variation of cp with the 2° droop morphing variation as per the target. The wind tunnel testing showed that further developments to the design chain are necessary, in particular the need for a concurrent as opposed to sequential chain for the design of the various components. Considerations of other problem formulations, the inclusion of nonlinear finite element analysis, and ways to interpret the structural boundary of the topology optimization results with more confidence are required. The utilization of super-elastic materials in morphing structures may also prove to be highly beneficial for their performance.This work presents the lessons learned from wind tunnel tests of a droop-nose morphing wingtip as part of the EU project NOVEMOR. The design followed a sequential chain and was largely driven through optimization tools, including a glass-fiber composite skin optimization tool and a topology optimization tool for the design of internal super-elastic and aluminium compliant mechanisms. The device was tested in the low speed tunnel at the University of Bristol to determine the structural response under aerodynamic loading. Measurements of strain from strain gauges show that the structure is capable of handing the aerodynamic loads though also show an imbalance of strain between the components. Measurements of surface pressures show a small variation of cp with the 2° droop morphing variation as per the target. The wind tunnel testing showed that further developments to the design chain are necessary, in particular the need for a concurrent as opposed to sequential chain for the design of the various components. Considerations of other problem formulations, the inclusion of nonlinear finite element analysis, and ways to interpret the structural boundary of the topology optimization results with more confidence are required. The utilization of super-elastic materials in morphing structures may also prove to be highly beneficial for their performance.

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

This work presents the lessons learned from wind tunnel tests of a droop-nose morphing wingtip as part of the EU project NOVEMOR. The design followed a sequential chain and was largely driven through optimization tools, including a glass-fiber composite skin optimization tool and a topology optimization tool for the design of internal super-elastic and aluminium compliant mechanisms. The device was tested in the low speed tunnel at the University of Bristol to determine the structural response under aerodynamic loading. Measurements of strain from strain gauges show that the structure is capable of handing the aerodynamic loads though also show an imbalance of strain between the components. Measurements of surface pressures show a small variation of cp with the 2° droop morphing variation as per the target. The wind tunnel testing showed that further developments to the design chain are necessary, in particular the need for a concurrent as opposed to sequential chain for the design of the various components. Considerations of other problem formulations, the inclusion of nonlinear finite element analysis, and ways to interpret the structural boundary of the topology optimization results with more confidence are required. The utilization of super-elastic materials in morphing structures may also prove to be highly beneficial for their performance.This work presents the lessons learned from wind tunnel tests of a droop-nose morphing wingtip as part of the EU project NOVEMOR. The design followed a sequential chain and was largely driven through optimization tools, including a glass-fiber composite skin optimization tool and a topology optimization tool for the design of internal super-elastic and aluminium compliant mechanisms. The device was tested in the low speed tunnel at the University of Bristol to determine the structural response under aerodynamic loading. Measurements of strain from strain gauges show that the structure is capable of handing the aerodynamic loads though also show an imbalance of strain between the components. Measurements of surface pressures show a small variation of cp with the 2° droop morphing variation as per the target. The wind tunnel testing showed that further developments to the design chain are necessary, in particular the need for a concurrent as opposed to sequential chain for the design of the various components. Considerations of other problem formulations, the inclusion of nonlinear finite element analysis, and ways to interpret the structural boundary of the topology optimization results with more confidence are required. The utilization of super-elastic materials in morphing structures may also prove to be highly beneficial for their performance.

Chiral Morphing Wing Tip Design and Test

This work presents a proof of concept morphing design to control twist of a wing tip. The morphing is achieved by exploiting the properties of a chiral structure to undergo large shape changes with small local strains. Details of the approach for designing a wind tunnel model containing a chiral internal structure are discussed, along with an evaluation of the actuator requirements. The static performance of a demonstrator chiral wing tip is also compared to numerical predictions.