Nonlinear fluid-solid coupling responses of flexible skin-based morphing camber wings

Abstract

Two original finger-like morphing camber wings (MCWs) based on flexible woven and corrugated composite skins are elaborately designed and skillfully manufactured, and experimentally validated. It is manifested that both original finger-like MCWs could flexibly and continuously morph without buckling and wrinkling, illustrating the ideal morphing camber function. In accordance with the MCWs geometries and constitutive relationships of flexible composite skins, novel analytical model is then devised for predicting the material and geometric nonlinear mechanical behaviours of the MCWs. Good agreement has been achieved between the experiments and the predictions, demonstrating the effective usage of new analytical model of finger-like MCWs. Finally, new fluid-solid coupling FE model is generated for evaluating fluid-solid interaction on mechanical responses of the MCWs under aerodynamic pressure. It is born out that fluid-solid coupling has a significant adverse impact on mechanical behaviours of finger-like MCW, and flexible woven composite skin holds superiority over flexible corrugated composite skin in terms of out-of-plane deformation resistance and bearing-load capacity under aerodynamic pressure. New model opens an avenue to numerically evaluate fluid-solid interaction on mechanical responses of the MCWs under aerodynamic pressure.