Session: 06-10-01: Advanced Manufacturing in Aerospace Engineering

Paper Number: 166937

Design of a 3D-Printed and Modular Camber Morphing Wing Mechanism and Its Performance Analysis in a Wind Tunnel 

Inspired by nature and avionic birds, this paper introduces effective airfoil morphing mechanisms followed by its detailed design, implementation, control, and performance compared to conventional wings with flaps. Unlike conventional fixed-wing aircraft that use control surfaces such as flaps and ailerons for flight control, the concept of morphing is a more substantial and conformal shape change that has the advantages of enhanced aerodynamic performances, including longer flight time and range, radar signature, from reduced D, drag force or improved L/D, lift and drag ratio. Camber is the curvature in the airfoil, and camber morphing is one way of adjusting the camber rate or curvature to modify the flight profile by adjusting L and D. Various works have shown the effectiveness of camber morphing; however, the actual system and its performance verification have not been fully developed for UAVs since camber morphing requires specific internal mechanisms that are light and simple and conformally change the camber rate accordingly. This paper shares detailed design, implementation, and performance evaluation for converting from conventional to morphing UAVs in future applications.

Inspired by nature and avionic birds, this paper introduces effective airfoil morphing mechanisms, followed by its detailed design, implementation, and performance evaluation. The concept of morphing is a more substantial and conformal shape change that has the advantages of enhanced aerodynamic performances, including longer flight time and range, radar signature, from reduced D, drag force or improved L/D, lift and drag ratio. Camber morphing is one way of adjusting the camber rate or curvature to modify the flight profile by adjusting L and D. Various works have shown the effectiveness of camber morphing; however, the actual implementation, control of effective mechanisms, and its aerodynamical improvements have not been fully developed for UAVs since camber morphing requires specific internal mechanisms that are light and simple and conformally change the camber rate accordingly. This paper shares detailed design, implementation, and performance evaluation for converting from conventional to morphing UAVs in future applications. Some of the near-futuristic works for a full-scale UAV are expected to follow.

The expected wingspan is 6.4 feet (about 2 meters), and the taper ratio is one as a rectangular wing shape, as shown in Fig. 17. The total ten variable camber airfoils are expected to be equally spaced over the entire wing. The chord length is 0.325 meters, and the expected cruising speed of the UAV is about 16 m/s. The baseline airfoil in the UAV is NACA4418, the same as the camber morphing airfoil in this work.

Presenting Author: Md Azizul Islam Tennessee Technological University

Presenting Author Biography: Md Azizul Islam is a ME major graduate (MS) student at Tennessee Tech University.
He is an real aerospace engineering and aircraft designer.
He used to own a RC glider and small UAV design and manufacturing company.
He is currently working on the morphing wing aicraft design and testing.

Authors:

Md Azizul Islam Tennessee Technological University
Azizur Rahman Tennessee Technological University
Achintya Saha Tennessee Technological University
Bruce Jo Tennessee Technological University