An Investigation of a Morphing Flapped Wing

Madi, Fakhreddine; Kanaa, Zac; Narayan, Pritesh; Yao, Yufeng

Abstract

This study investigated the design, development, and validation of an alternative method to achieve morphing in wings through the implementation of a sliding mechanism concept. Performance was tested at a specific Reynolds number (Re = 0.62 × 106). Manufacturing an initial wing that incorporated a modular flap design allowed both hinge and morphing flap to be tested using the same primary setup. A subsonic wind tunnel was used to experimentally test the two setups at the same conditions. The goal of this study was to verify the experimental findings against Computational Fluid Dynamics results completed by Abdessemed et al. regarding statically set flaps. Results of this study showed trends that matched [1] despite the slightly different set up used. This study confirmed that such designs could achieve greater performance at lower angles of attack.

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (unpublished)
• Conference Name: Aerospace Europe Conference (AEC2020)
• Start Date: Feb 25, 2020
• End Date: Feb 28, 2020
• Deposit Date: Mar 15, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 16, 2020
• Keywords: morphing wing, wind tunnel, improving wing efficiency
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/5680972