Structural design and optimization of a morphing wing trailing edge flap

Abstract

This paper presents the structural design and optimization process of a morphing wing trailing edge (TE) flap. The flap consists of flexible upper and lower skins and various connections that constrains the relative motion between the upper and lower skins, and is actuated by an eccentric beam to which several discs of variable radii and setting angles with respect to the beam is rigidly attached. The focus of this work is to find the optimal parameters for the eccentric beam and the connections so that the upper and lower skins bend to the desired shapes and their deformation process is continuous. To achieve this goal, a computer design tool that makes synthetic use of MATLAB, Python and ABAQUS is developed. Specifically, the shape of the eccentric beam, the number, locations, shapes and orientations of the discs, and the number and locations of the connections are calculated according to the target shapes of the morphing flap in MATLAB. These parameters are passed to a Python script that automatically generates the finite element (FE) model of the morphing TE flap assembly for ABAQUS. The FE model is then simulated in ABAQUS and the needed results are extracted by the Python script and passed back to the main MATLAB code, in which a particle swarm optimization is used to find the set of parameters that lead to the optimal bent shape of the upper and lower skins. The results showed that the proposed design process is robust and able to achieve the desired morphed continuously shape of the TE flap.