Optimization and design of an aircraft's morphing wing-tip demonstrator for drag reduction at low speeds,Part Ⅱ-Experimental validation using Infra-Red transition measurement from Wind Tunnel tests

In the present paper, an ‘in-house' genetic algorithm was numerically and experimentally validated. The genetic algorithm was applied to an optimization problem for improving the aerodynamic performances of an aircraft wing tip through upper surface morphing. The optimization was performed for 16 flight cases expressed in terms of various combinations of speeds, angles of attack and aileron deflections. The displacements resulted from the optimization were used during the wind tunnel tests of the wing tip demonstrator for the actuators control to change the upper surface shape of the wing. The results of the optimization of the flow behavior for the airfoil morphing upper-surface problem were validated with wind tunnel experimental transition results obtained with infra-red Thermography on the wing-tip demonstrator. The validation proved that the 2D numerical optimization using the ‘in-house' genetic algorithm was an appropriate tool in improving various aspects of a wing's aerodynamic performances.     

Gain self-scheduled H_∞ control for morphing aircraft in the wing transition process based on an LPV model

This article investigates gain self-scheduled H 1 robust control system design for a tailless fold- ing-wing morphing aircraft in the wing shape varying process. During the wing morphing phase, the aircraft’s dynamic response will be governed by time-varying aerodynamic forces and moments. Nonlinear dynamic equations of the morphing aircraft are linearized by using Jacobian linearization approach, and a linear parameter varying (LPV) model of the morphing aircraft in wing folding is obtained. A multi-loop controller for the morphing aircraft is formulated to guarantee stability for the wing shape transition process. The proposed controller uses a set of inner-loop gains to provide stability using classical techniques, whereas a gain self-scheduled H 1 outer-loop controller is devised to guarantee a specific level of robust stability and performance for the time-varying dynamics. The closed-loop simulations show that speed and altitude vary slightly during the whole wing folding process, and they converge rapidly after the process ends. This proves that the gain self-scheduled H 1 robust controller can guarantee a satisfactory dynamic performance for the morphing aircraft during the whole wing shape transition process. Finally, the flight control system’s robustness for the wing folding process is verified according to uncertainties of the aerodynamic parameters in the nonlinear model.     

Design,modeling, and control of morphing aircraft:A review

A morphing aircraft can adapt its configuration to suit different types of tasks, which is also an important requirement of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles(UAV). The successful development of an unmanned morphing aircraft involves three steps that determine its ability and intelligent: configuration design, dynamic modeling and flight control. This study conducts a comprehensive survey of morphing aircraft. First, the methods to design the configuration of a morphing aircraft are presented and analyzed...     

折叠翼变体飞行器非定常气动特性实验研究

折叠翼变体飞行器是一种可以在飞行中改变自身气动外形的新型飞行器。研制出了一种折叠翼变体飞行器的风洞实验模型,在风洞实验中测得了模型不同变体位置下的气动力以及进行变体运动时气动力的动态变化过程,并通过PIV实验手段获得模型周围的流场在变体运动过程中的变化情况。结果表明：在机翼变形过程中,折叠翼模型有明显的非定常气动现象产生,而且折叠变形的速度越大,非定常现象越明显。出现非定常现象的主要原因是变体运动对机翼前缘涡的影响。     

Proportional fuzzy feed-forward architecture control validation by wind tunnel tests of a morphing wing

In aircraft wing design, engineers aim to provide the best possible aerodynamic performance under cruise flight conditions in terms of lift-to-drag ratio. Conventional control sur-faces such as flaps, ailerons, variable wing sweep and spoilers are used to trim the aircraft for other flight conditions. The appearance of the morphing wing concept launched a new challenge in the area of overall wing and aircraft performance improvement during different flight segments by locally altering the flow over the aircraft's wings. This paper describes the development and appli-cation of a control system for an actuation mechanism integrated in a new morphing wing structure. The controlled actuation system includes four similar miniature electromechanical actuators dis-posed in two parallel actuation lines. The experimental model of the morphing wing is based on a full-scale portion of an aircraft wing, which is equipped with an aileron. The upper surface of the wing is a flexible one, being closed to the wing tip; the flexible skin is made of light composite materials. The four actuators are controlled in unison to change the flexible upper surface to improve the flow quality on the upper surface by delaying or advancing the transition point from laminar to turbulent regime. The actuators transform the torque into vertical forces. Their bases are fixed on the wing ribs and their top link arms are attached to supporting plates fixed onto the flex-ible skin with screws. The actuators push or pull the flexible skin using the necessary torque until the desired vertical displacement of each actuator is achieved. The four vertical displacements of the actuators, correlated with the new shape of the wing, are provided by a database obtained through a preliminary aerodynamic optimization for specific flight conditions. The control system is designed to control the positions of the actuators in real time in order to obtain and to maintain the desired shape of the wing for a specified flight condition. The feasibility and effectiveness of the developed control system by use of a proportional fuzzy feed-forward methodology are demon-strated experimentally through bench and wind tunnel tests of the morphing wing model.     

变体飞机设计的主要关键技术

针对变体飞机的特点,分析了其在设计中出现的诸多新的技术难点,对拟解决的主要关键技术,包括变体飞机不同于常规固定构型飞机的总体及气动协调设计、机翼智能结构设计、可控性设计与飞行控制系统设计等进行了详细介绍。研究结果对于变体飞机的设计具有一定参考价值。     

伸缩机翼变体飞机气动特性研究

伸缩机翼变体飞机通过机翼伸缩调整机翼展长,从而改变机翼面积和展弦比,改变飞机的气动布局和机翼的气动特性,满足多任务点的设计要求。简要介绍伸缩机翼变体飞机的发展历史,重点研究一种采用伸缩机翼设计的超音速飞机的气动特性变化。研究结果表明：亚音速时机翼展长伸长,展弦比增大,飞机诱导阻力降低,升阻比提高,可以明显提高飞机的航程;超音速时机翼展长缩短,展弦比减小,飞机的波阻降低,升阻比增大,提高了超音速飞行性能。伸缩机翼概念用于超音速飞机设计时能很好地兼顾亚音速巡航和超音速冲刺。     

A study of morphing aircraft on morphing rules along trajectory

Morphing aircraft can meet requirements of multi-mission during the whole flight due to changing the aerodynamic shape, so it is necessary to study its morphing rules along the trajectory. However, trajectory planning considering morphing variables requires a huge number of expensive CFD computations due to the morphing in view of aerodynamic performance. Under the given missions and trajectory, to alleviate computational cost and improve trajectory-planning efficiency for morphing aircraft, an offline optimization method is proposed based on Multi-Fidelity Kriging (MFK) modeling. The angle of attack, Mach number, sweep angle and axial position of the morphing wing are defined as variables for generating training data for building the MFK models, in which many inviscid aerodynamic solutions are used as low-fidelity data, while the less high-fidelity data are obtained by solving viscous flow. Then the built MFK models of the lift, drag and pressure centre at the different angles of attack and Mach numbers are used to predict the aerodynamic performance of the morphing aircraft, which keeps the optimal sweep angle and axial position of the wing during trajectory planning. Hence, the morphing rules can be correspondingly acquired along the trajectory, as well as keep the aircraft with the best aerodynamic performance during the whole task. The trajectory planning of a morphing aircraft was performed with the optimal aerodynamic performance based on the MFK models, built by only using 240 low-fidelity data and 110 high-fidelity data. The results indicate that a complex trajectory can take advantage of morphing rules in keeping good aerodynamic performance, and the proposed method is more efficient than trajectory optimization by reducing 86% of the computing time.     

伸缩机翼变形技术研究

变体飞机可以根据需要改变气动外形,以便在不同的飞行状态都能获得最佳的气动性能,提高飞机的任务适应能力。伸缩机翼变形技术在国外已经过几十年的研究和探索,是变体飞机技术的主要发展方向之一。本文综述了伸缩机翼技术的发展历史及国内外研究情况,阐述了伸缩机翼变形原理及其优缺点,提炼了设计伸缩机翼所涉及的关键技术,展望了伸缩机翼技术在飞机、导弹、地效翼飞行器以及飞行汽车等方面的应用前景。     

Z型翼变体飞机的纵向多体动力学特性

机翼变形时,变体飞机的翼面积、惯性特性、全机焦点和重心位置等均会发生较大的变化,从而引起飞机的动态特性也随之改变。为此对机翼变形过程中的Z型翼变体飞机进行了纵向多体动力学建模仿真;推导了变形过程中变体飞机的六自由度非线性动力学方程,并通过简化得到了解耦后的纵向动力学方程。机翼折叠动态过程的气动特性数值模拟结果表明,不同折叠角速度下飞机的气动力相差不大。在机翼折叠角速度较小且忽略非定常气动效应的情况下,采用气动力准定常假设对变形过程中不同机翼折叠角速度下变体飞机的纵向响应进行了数值仿真,并研究了重心位置移动和气动特性变化对飞机变形过程动态特性的影响规律。结果表明,折叠过程中气动特性的变化是影响飞机动态特性的主要因素,机翼折叠后飞机的速度和迎角增加,且飞行高度下降较大。     

Integrated optimization design of smart morphing wing for accurate shape control

Smart morphing wing, which is equipped with smart materials and able to change structural geometry adaptively, can further improve aerodynamic efficiency of aircraft. This paper presents a new integrated layout and topology optimization design for morphing wing driven by shape memory alloys (SMAs). By simultaneously optimizing the layout of smart actuators and topology of wing substrate, the ultimately determined configuration can achieve smooth, continuous and accurate geometric shape changes. In addition, aerodynamic analysis is carried out to compare smart morphing wing with traditional hinged airfoil. Finally, the optimized smart wing structure is constructed and tested to demonstrate and verify the morphing functionality. Application setbacks are also pointed out for further investigation.     

Transient aeroelastic responses and flutter analysis of a variable-span wing during the morphing process

To investigate the transient aeroelastic responses and flutter characteristics of a variablespan wing during the morphing process,a novel frst-order state-space aeroelastic model is proposed.The time-varying structural model of the morphing wing is established based on the Euler-Bernoulli beam theory with time-dependent boundary conditions.A nondimensionalization method is used to translate the time-dependent boundary conditions to be time-independent.The time-domain aerodynamic forces are calculated by the reduced-order unsteady vortex lattice method.The morphing parameters,i.e.,wing span length and morphing speed,are of particular interest for understanding the fundamental aeroelastic behavior of variable-span wings.A test case is proposed and numerical results indicate that the flutter characteristics are sensitive to both of the two morphing parameters.It could be noticed that the aeroelastic characteristics during the wing extracting process are more serious than those during the extending process at the same morphing speed by transient aeroelastic response analysis.In addition,a faster morphing process can get better aeroelastic performance while the mechanism comlexity will arise.     

大型客机气动设计综述

中国大型客机研制过程中追求"三减，四性"：减阻、减重、减排，安全性、经济性、舒适性、环保性。中国大型客机采用翼下常规布局形式，放宽静稳定技术，发动机选用CFM公司Leapx-1C发动机，这对气动设计技术在工程适用性上提出了极高的要求。大型客机是中国第1架完全自主知识产权民用飞机，本文综述了其设计过程中采用的先进气动优化设计方法、CFD分析和充分的风洞试验验证，说明了超临界机翼设计、高效增升装置设计、飞机/发动机一体化设计、尾翼设计、翼梢小翼设计和部件精细化减阻设计技术，能实现大型客机的减阻应用设计。研究表明，中国大型客机在气动设计水平和设计方法上取得了一系列的进展和突破，实现了设计具有较强竞争力的先进民用飞机的目标。     

Optimization and design of an aircraft's morphing wing-tip demonstrator for drag reduction at low speed,Part Ⅰ–Aerodynamic optimization using genetic,bee colony and gradient descent algorithms

In this paper, an ‘in-house' genetic algorithm is described and applied to an optimization problem for improving the aerodynamic performances of an aircraft wing tip through upper surface morphing. The algorithm's performances were studied from the convergence point of view, in accordance with design conditions. The algorithm was compared to two other optimization methods,namely the artificial bee colony and a gradient method, for two optimization objectives, and the results of the optimizations with each of the three methods were plotted on response surfaces obtained with the Monte Carlo method, to show that they were situated in the global optimum region. The optimization results for 16 wind tunnel test cases and 2 objective functions were presented. The 16 cases used for the optimizations were included in the experimental test plan for the morphing wing-tip demonstrator, and the results obtained using the displacements given by the optimizations were evaluated.     

折叠机翼变体飞机非对称变形控制效率分析

折叠机翼变体飞机变形量大,变形引起的气动参数变化显著,提出一种将非对称变形作为操纵输入的控制方案,研究非对称变形的控制效率和有效区间。首先建立能够完整描述变形过程的非线性动力学方程和气动力模型;然后基于非对称变形控制方法建立一种非对称变形操纵模型;最后通过与常规操纵面效率对比和仿真的动态响应总结出非对称变形操纵的最大变形操纵有效区间。结果表明:在较低飞行速度下非对称变形操纵效率高,非对称变形操纵能够在基准折叠角度90°附近提供最高的滚转操纵效率。     

智能材料和结构在变体飞行器上的应用现状与前景展望简

 变体飞行器可以根据不同的飞行条件改变自身形状以获得最优的气动性能,大大提高飞行器的综合性能,是未来飞行器发展的重要方向之一。新型智能材料和结构具有驱动、变形、承载、传感等特点,为变体飞行器的设计提供了新的技术途径。本文根据不同可变形机翼结构分类,详细阐述了智能材料和结构在自适应结构、智能驱动器和变形蒙皮等方面的研究现状。变体飞行器的实现亟需解决变形/承载一体化蒙皮技术、轻质大输出力驱动器技术和自适应结构技术等关键技术,本文还对智能材料和结构未来在变体飞行器上的应用前景进行了展望。     

智能材料和结构在变体飞行器上的应用现状与前景展望

变体飞行器可以根据不同的飞行条件改变自身形状以获得最优的气动性能,大大提高飞行器的综合性能,是未来飞行器发展的重要方向之一。新型智能材料和结构具有驱动、变形、承载、传感等特点,为变体飞行器的设计提供了新的技术途径。本文根据不同可变形机翼结构分类,详细阐述了智能材料和结构在自适应结构、智能驱动器和变形蒙皮等方面的研究现状。变体飞行器的实现亟需解决变形/承载一体化蒙皮技术、轻质大输出力驱动器技术和自适应结构技术等关键技术,本文还对智能材料和结构未来在变体飞行器上的应用前景进行了展望。     

Computational aerodynamic analysis on perimeter reinforced （PR）-compliant wing

Abstract Implementing the morphing technique on a micro air vehicle （MAV） wing is a very chal- lenging task, due to the MAWs wing size limitation and the complex morphing mechanism. As a result, understanding aerodynamic characteristics and flow configurations, subject to wing structure deformation of a morphing wing MAV has remained obstructed. Thus, this paper presents the investigation of structural deformation, aerodynamics performance and flow formation on a pro- posed twist morphing MAV wing design named perimeter reinforced （PR）-compliant wing. The numerical simulation of two-way fluid structure interaction （FSI） investigation consist of a quasi- static aeroelastic structural analysis coupled with 3D incompressible Reynolds-averaged Navier- Stokes and shear-stress-transport （RANS-SST） solver utilized throughout this study. Verification of numerical method on a rigid rectangular wing achieves a good correlation with available exper- imental results. A comparative aeroelastic study between PR-compliant to PR and rigid wing per- formance is organized to elucidate the morphing wing performances. Structural deformation results show that PR-compliant wing is able to alter the wing＇s geometric twist characteristic, which has directly influenced both the overall aerodynamic performance and flow structure behavior. Despite the superior lift performance result, PR-compliant wing also suffers from massive drag penalty, which has consequently affected the wing efficiency in general. Based on vortices investigation, the results reveal the connection between these aerodynamic performances with vortices formation on PR-comoliant wing.     

Delaying stall of morphing wing by periodic trailing-edge deflection

Morphing wings can improve aircraft performance during different flight phases. Recently research has focused on steady aerodynamic characteristics of the morphing wing with a flexible trailing-edge, and the unsteady aerodynamic and stall characteristics in the deflection process of the morphing wing are worthy further investigation. The effects of the angle of attack and deflection rate on aerodynamic characteristics were examined, and based on the aerodynamic characteristics of the morphing wing, a method was developed to delay stall by using the flexible periodic trailing-edge deflection. The numerical results show that the lift coefficients in the deflection process are smaller than those in the static situation at small angles of attack, and that the higher the deflection rate is, the smaller the lift coefficients will be. On the contrary, at large angles of attack, the lift coefficients are higher than those in the static case, and they become larger with the increase of the deflection rate. Further, the periodic deflection of the flexible trailing-edge with a small deflection amplitude and high deflection rate can increase lift coefficients at the critical stall angle.     

Continuous morphing trailing-edge wing concept based on multi-stable nanomaterial

Morphing technology is one of the most effective methods to improve the flight efficiency of aircraft. Traditional control surfaces based morphing method is mature and widely used on current civil and military aircraft, but insufficiently effective for the entire flight envelope. Recent research on morphing wing still faces the challenge that the skin material for morphing should be both deformable and stiff. In this study, a continuous morphing trailing-edge wing with a new multi-stable nano skin material fabricated using surface mechanical attrition treatment technology was proposed and designed. Computational fluid dynamics simulation was used to study the aerodynamic performance of the continuous morphing trailing-edge wing. Results show that the lift coefficient increases with the increase of deflection angle and so does the lift-drag ratio at a small angle of attack. More importantly, compared with the wing using flaps, the continuous morphing trailing-edge wing can reduce drag during the morphing process and its overall aerodynamic performance is improved at a large angle of attack range. Flow field analysis reveals that the continuous morphing method can delay flow separation in some situations.