Abstract
Morphing concepts have great importance for the design of future aircraft as they provide the opportunity for the aircraft to adapt their shape in flight so as to always match the optimal configuration. This enables the aircraft to have a better performance, such as reducing fuel consumption, toxic emissions and noise pollution or increasing the maneuverability of the aircraft. However the requirements of morphing aircraft are conflicting from the structural perspective. For instance the design of a morphing skin is a key issue since it must be stiff to withstand the aerodynamic loads, but flexible to enable the large shape changes. Corrugated sheets have remarkable anisotropic characteristics. As a candidate skin for a morphing wing, they are stiff to withstand the aerodynamic loads and flexible to enable the morphing deformations. This work presents novel insights into the multi-objective optimization of a trapezoidal corrugated core with elastomer coating. The geometric parameters of the coated composite corrugated panels are optimized to minimize the in-plane stiffness and the weight of the skin and to maximize the flexural out-of-plane stiffness of the skin. These objective functions were calculated by use of an equivalent finite element code. The gradient-based aggregate method is selected to solve the optimization problem and is validated by comparing to the GA multi-objective optimization technique. The trend of the optimized objectives and parameters are discussed in detail; for example the optimum corrugation often has the maximum corrugation height. The obtained results provide important insights into the design of morphing corrugated skins.
Highlights
1.1 About morphing aircraftImproving the performance of an aircraft is important for a variety of reasons, such as: reducing the energy consumption, decreasing the toxic emissions and noise pollution or increasing the maneuverability of the aircraft (Barbarino et al 2011; Chekkal et al 2014)
Morphing technology is necessary in the design of future aircraft as it provides the opportunity for the aircraft to adapt its shape in flight to the optimal configuration without unacceptable penalties in terms of cost, complexity and weight
Bearing in mind the manufacturing limitations, different possible configurations of FishBAC stringers and corrugated skin were considered in the optimization problem
Summary
Improving the performance of an aircraft is important for a variety of reasons, such as: reducing the energy consumption, decreasing the toxic emissions and noise pollution or increasing the maneuverability of the aircraft (Barbarino et al 2011; Chekkal et al 2014). The problem with the design of current aircraft wings is that they cannot be optimized for every single point of the flight envelope, for example take off, cruise and landing. A new generation of aircraft known as morphing aircraft are needed for further improvement of the aircraft performance without unacceptable penalties in terms of cost, complexity and weight. In contrast to conventional aircraft design, the new morphing technology provides higher efficiency in terms of lightness, size of volume, energy consumption and mission diversity
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