Effects of an unsteady morphing wing with seamless side-edge transition on aerodynamic performance

Abdessemed, Chawki; Bouferrouk, Abdessalem; Yao, Yufeng

Abstract

This paper presents an unsteady flow analysis of a 3D wing with a morphing trailing edge flap (TEF) and a seamless side-edge transition between the morphed and static parts of a wing by introducing an unsteady parametrization method. First, a 3D steady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) analysis of a statically morphed TEF with seamless transition is performed and the results are compared with both a baseline clean wing and a wing with a traditional hinged flap configuration at a Reynolds number of 0.7 × 106 for a range of angles of attack (AoA), from 4◦ to 15◦. This study extends some previous published work by examining the inherent unsteady 3D effects due to the presence of the seamless transition. It is found that in the pre-stall regime, the statically morphed wing produces a maximum of a 22% higher lift and a near constant drag reduction of 25% compared with the hinged flap wing, resulting in up to 40% enhancement in the aerodynamic efficiency (i.e., lift/drag ratio). Second, unsteady flow analysis of the dynamically morphing TEF with seamless flap side-edge transition is performed to provide further insights into the dynamic lift and drag forces during the flap motions at three pre-defined morphing frequencies of 4 Hz, 6 Hz, and 8 Hz, respectively. Results have shown that an initially large overshoot in the drag coefficient is observed due to unsteady flow effects induced by the dynamically morphing wing; the overshoot is proportional to the morphing frequency which indicates the need to account for dynamic morphing effects in the design phase of a morphing wing.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jan 29, 2022
• Online Publication Date: Feb 1, 2022
• Publication Date: Feb 1, 2022
• Deposit Date: Feb 5, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 8, 2022
• Journal: Energies
• Electronic ISSN: 1996-1073
• Publisher: MDPI
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 15
• Issue: 3
• Article Number: 1093
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/en15031093
• Keywords: Energy (miscellaneous); Energy Engineering and Power Technology; Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment; Electrical and Electronic Engineering; Control and Optimization; Engineering (miscellaneous)
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/9002981