Aerodynamic analysis for module discretization and consolidation of a morphing wing

Abstract

Module discretization and consolidation was performed on morphing wing profiles optimized for climb, cruise, and descent flight regimes. Wing profiles were created using an optimization algorithm based on their aerodynamic performance for the three flight regimes. A module discretization method was applied for the three cases and the minimum number of modules were found for each case without significantly sacrificing performance. The three wing profiles were then consolidated into a single final wing using a newly proposed method for combining closely aligned joints based on a weighting scale for each flight regime. When the final wing’s performance was compared to the original wing profiles a reduction of 5% and 2% was observed for climb and descent configurations, respectively. The cruise configuration was found have a 3% increase when compare to the original profile. The final wing was found to successfully maintain aerodynamic performance during module discretization and consolidation process.