Abstract
Interest in the design and development of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has increased dramatically in the last two and a half decades. The Buckle-Wing UAV concept being developed in this research is designed to “morph” in a way which facilitates variations in wing loading, aspect ratio and wing section shapes. The Buckle-Wing consists of two highly elastic beam-like lifting surfaces joined at the outboard wing tips in either a pinned or clamped configuration. The Buckle-Wing UAV is capable of morphing between a separated wing configuration designed for maneuverability to a single fixed wing configuration designed for long range/high endurance. The design of the Buckle-Wing’s aerodynamic shapes is critical to the functioning of this adaptive UAV airframe. The airfoils must be capable of functioning both as independent lifting surfaces and as a fused single wing. The adaptive airframe of the BuckleWing requires that the two airfoils/wings conform as one single wing for the extended range and/or endurance configuration. This paper is focused on the use of shape optimization technologies to optimally tailor the aerodynamic performance of the UAV airfoils in both the separated and single fixed wing configuration. A conforming multi-objective and multilevel airfoil shape optimization problem is formulated and solved. Given an exterior airfoil, optimized for long endurance, shape optimization can be used to decomposed the exterior airfoil into two conforming airfoils in such a way that when separated the airfoils produce a 85% increase in lift providing improved maneuverability. ∗Graduate Research Assistant, Student Member AIAA †Professor, Associate Fellow AIAA. Nomenclature α Angle of attack ρ∞ Free stream density ω Turning rate c Thrust-specific fuel consumption cd Drag coefficient cl Lift coefficient D Total drag E Endurance g Acceleration of gravity L Total lift n Wing load factor r Turning radius R Range S Planform Area t Time V∞ Free stream velocity W Weight of aircraft at any given time W1 Weight of aircraft without fuel and with full payload Wo Weight of aircraft with full fuel and payload
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