Active aeroelastic tailoring of high aspect ratio composite wings

Abstract

Abstract : The objective of the proposed work is to study the fundamental mechanisms of active aeroelastic tailoring of high-aspect-ratio composite wings. The emphasis will be on actively exploring structural flexibility to enhance flight performance and reduce structural weight, while controlling aeroelastic instabilities. To investigate the effects of distributed anisotropic strain actuation and their synergism with the passive aeroelastic tailored composite structure, a suitable nonlinear active aeroelastic framework is required. Therefore, an analysis and design tool is being developed for high aspect ratio active flexible wings. The formulation is capable of modeling the nonlinear large deflection behavior of the wings, deformation due to applied voltages on the active plies in the skin of the wing, and the unsteady subsonic aerodynamic forces acting on the wing. Because the wing is long and slender, it can be reasonably well modeled as a beam undergoing three dimensional displacements and rotations. The cross sectional stiffness, inertia, and actuation properties of the wing are calculated along the span, and then a 1-d nonlinear beam model is constructed. This is a novel beam representation that is based on the beam curvatures, resulting in a computationally efficient low-order model suitable for preliminary structural design and control synthesis. Preliminary numerical results are presented in this report.