Airfoil Deformation Research Articles

Aircraft Wing Morphing Using Auxetic Structures

Cellular materials exhibit two key properties: structures and mechanisms. This allows for the design of structures using cellular materials while effectively controlling both stiffness and flexibility, based on the connectivity of the struts. This study aims to explore the in-plane flexible properties of cellular materials dominated by bending under macroscopic deformation. Additionally, it seeks to establish a method for designing a passive morphing airfoil with flexible cellular cores. The investigation focuses on airfoils featuring re-entrant and S-shaped cellular cores, analyzing their behavior under static loads by examining the deformation of the cellular cores subjected to aerostatic loads. In the context of the airfoil's deformation with flexible cellular cores under aerostatic loading, shear emerges as the predominant deformation mode for the cores of the airfoil. Wings of conventional aircraft are optimized for only a few conditions, not for the entire flight envelope. Therefore, it is necessary to develop the morphing airfoil with smart structures for the next generation of excellent aircraft. In this project, this was made possible using, re-entrant and S-shaped auxetic structures as a member of the meta- material family, with negative Poisson's ratio to enable an effortless passive morphing mechanism as it has high flexibility along in-plane direction (chord-wise). The 3D CAD Models of Re-entrant and S-shaped auxetic airframes were designed and analyzed. Initially, Static Structural analysis is performed on both airframes to observe the structure’s behavior, and design modification and optimization are performed in different iterations. With a reduction in maximum equivalent stress by 20%, the Re-entrant airframe exhibits lower stress and hence more flexibility. The wings were modeled with a span of 1m using auxetic airframes, air pressure was generated using CFD analysis with MACH 0.45. Finally, the fluid-structure interaction was done by importing the air pressure and performing static structural analysis for the structural performance of wings using auxetic airframes. It was found that Re-entrant auxetic wing showed an increase of 9.99% in load carrying capacity, accompanied by a decrease of 389 grams of weight when compared to S-shaped auxetic wing. Considering the deformation of the airframe with flexible cellular cores under a load, the re-entrant honeycomb core shows the highest flexibility in shear and causes lower stress than the S-auxetic cores. This implies that the re-entrant honeycomb core has the potential for passive morphing.

Aeroelastic analysis of membrane airfoils and flexible-chord airfoils with trailing-edge flaps

This paper studies the static and dynamic aeroelastic characteristics of membrane airfoils and flexible-chord airfoils (deformable airfoils) with the emphasis on the effects of a trailing-edge (TE) flap which is a novel topic. Two modeling approaches are presented; the first method is the Rayleigh–Ritz method, and the second method is the finite element method which is an efficient method to study the TE flap effects. The two models are presented in the Laplace domain which enables the transient response analysis. The models adopt the potential flow aerodynamics based on the Prandtl–Glauert thin-airfoil theory and the Theodorsen’s unsteady theory. The airfoils are assumed to have small deformations, so linear structural models are used. The effect of the airfoils’ flexibilities on the static aeroelastic characteristics and the dynamic responses due to step and harmonic TE flap inputs is presented through a parametric study.

Prospects of improving control over the process of electrochemical machining of the blade airfoil profile using the duplex mode method

The paper discusses the features of machining of a compressor blade airfoil. The problem of airfoil deformations under the action of residual stresses that negatively affect the accuracy of the relative position of the airfoil relative to the blade root is discussed. Methods of compensating for the effect of permanent deformations on the accuracy in blade machining and the impossibility of using this approach when the compressor blade is included in the duplex mode technology of electrochemical machining are specified. The analysis of the pattern of electrochemical machining of the blade airfoil with adjustment of the auxiliary technological base developed by the authors and the use of segmented electrodes showed the effectiveness of its use in order to compensate for airfoil deformations. We suggest measuring the interelectrode gaps in the machining chamber after refixturing the base in order to reduce the total machining time. We also suggest using the modernized electrochemical machining scheme when designing a CNC machine for the machining of a blade airfoil.

Separable shape tensors for aerodynamic design

AbstractAirfoil shape design is a classical problem in engineering and manufacturing. In this work, we combine principled physics-based considerations for the shape design problem with modern computational techniques using a data-driven approach. Modern and traditional analyses of two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) aerodynamic shapes reveal a flow-based sensitivity to specific deformations that can be represented generally by affine transformations (rotation, scaling, shearing, and translation). We present a novel representation of shapes that decouples affine-style deformations over a submanifold and a product submanifold principally of the Grassmannian. As an analytic generative model, the separable representation, informed by a database of physically relevant airfoils, offers: (i) a rich set of novel 2D airfoil deformations not previously captured in the data, (ii) an improved low-dimensional parameter domain for inferential statistics informing design/manufacturing, and (iii) consistent 3D blade representation and perturbation over a sequence of nominal 2D shapes.

Data-Driven Unsteady Aeroelastic Modeling for Control

Aeroelastic structures, from insect wings to wind turbine blades, experience transient unsteady aerodynamic loads that are coupled to their motion. Effective real-time control of flexible structures relies on accurate and efficient predictions of both the unsteady aeroelastic forces and airfoil deformation. For rigid wings, classical unsteady aerodynamic models have recently been reformulated in state space for control and extended to include viscous effects. Here, we further extend this modeling framework to include the deformation of a flexible wing in addition to the quasi-steady, added mass, and unsteady viscous forces. We develop low-order linear models based on data from direct numerical simulations of flow past a flexible wing at a low Reynolds number. We demonstrate the effectiveness of these models to track aggressive maneuvers with model predictive control while constraining maximum wing deformation. This system identification approach provides an interpretable, accurate, and low-dimensional representation of an aeroelastic system that can aid in system and controller design for applications where transients play an important role.

Asymmetric Airfoil Morphing via Deep Reinforcement Learning.

Morphing aircraft are capable of modifying their geometry configurations according to different flight conditions to improve their performance, such as by increasing the lift-to-drag ratio or reducing their fuel consumption. In this article, we focus on the airfoil morphing of wings and propose a novel morphing control method for an asymmetric deformable airfoil based on deep reinforcement learning approaches. Firstly, we develop an asymmetric airfoil shaped using piece-wise Bézier curves and modeled by shape memory alloys. Resistive heating is adopted to actuate the shape memory alloys and realize the airfoil morphing. With regard to the hysteresis characteristics exhibited in the phase transformation of shape memory alloys, we construct a second-order Markov decision process for the morphing procedure to formulate a reinforcement learning environment with hysteresis properties explicitly considered. Subsequently, we learn the morphing policy based on deep reinforcement learning techniques where the accurate information of the system model is unavailable. Lastly, we conduct simulations to demonstrate the benefits brought by our learning implementations and validate the morphing performance of the proposed method. The simulation results show that the proposed method provides an average 29.8% performance improvement over traditional methods.

An insect-inspired asymmetric hinge in a double-layer membrane.

Insect wings are deformable airfoils, in which deformations are mostly achieved by complicated interactions between their structural components. Due to the complexity of the wing design and technical challenges associated with testing the delicate wings, we know little about the properties of their components and how they determine wing response to flight forces. Here, we report an unusual structure from the hind-wing membrane of the beetle Pachnoda marginata. The structure, a transverse section of the claval flexion line, consists of two distinguishable layers: a bell-shaped upper layer and a straight lower layer. Our computational simulations showed that this is an effective one-way hinge, which is stiff in tension and upward bending but flexible in compression and downward bending. By systematically varying its design parameters in a computational model, we showed that the properties of the double-layer membrane hinge can be tuned over a wide range. This enabled us to develop a broad design space, which we later used for model selection. We used selected models in three distinct applications, which proved that the double-layer hinge represents a simple yet effective design strategy for controlling the mechanical response of structures using a single material and with no extra mass. The insect-inspired, one-way hinge is particularly useful for developing structures with asymmetric behavior, exhibiting different responses to the same load in two opposite directions. This multidisciplinary study not only advances our understanding of the biomechanics of complicated insect wings but also informs the design of easily tunable engineering hinges.

Parameter varying control of wind turbine smart rotor for structural load mitigation

This study investigates the Linear Parameter Varying (LPV) control of a Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine (HAWT) smart rotor in order to alleviate the structural loads. The smart rotor blades are equipped with actuators called Deformable Trailing Edge Flap (DTEF). These flaps benefit from a continuous airfoil deformation on the trailing edge in order to change the aerodynamic properties of blades. The objective of using a flap is to reduce the amplitude of load fluctuations in high wind speeds to decrease the fatigue loads on the wind turbine components and increase their working life. Here, the aerodynamic behavior of NACA 64-418 airfoil in the presence of DTEF deflection is studied numerically. The airfoil with 10% chord deformation is mounted on 5 MW NREL reference wind turbine blades in 67% to 95% of its length relative to the blade root. The nonlinear aeroelastic FAST code is used to determine the effects of DTEFs on structural load mitigation. Consequently, the modeling of nonlinear wind turbine system using LPV approach is discussed including the angle of DTEFs as a control input. A robust LPV controller has been designed using Linear Matrix Inequality (LMI) solution along the operating trajectory to guarantee the internal stability and H∞ robust performance of the closed-loop system in the presence of modeling uncertainties as well as wind turbulence. In sum, the idea of this study is the aerodynamic modeling of the wind turbine equipped with a smart rotor, designing an LPV controller and comparing the results with the conventional PI gain-scheduled controller. The principal objective is to reduce the amplitude of blade root flapwise bending moment oscillations about its mean values along the operating trajectory. As a summary of the results, a reduction in blade root flapwise bending moment fatigue load has been observed by 33% based on Damage Equivalent Load (DEL) calculation.

Bio inspired general artificial muscle using hybrid of mixed electrolysis and fluids chemical reaction (HEFR)

One of the issues in the field of soft-robotic systems is that how to create a fast displacement mechanism which it operates close to nature. This paper presents a deep study of hybrid of mixed electrolysis and fluids chemical reaction (HEFR) method for general applications, considering contraction/expansion of a single/multiple (taped) soft bio-inspired actuators in various conditions and a practical instance of a moving wing mechanism. This research extends the recent study of corresponding author’s team (Zakeri and Zakeri, Deformable airfoil using hybrid of mixed integration electrolysis and fluids chemical reaction (HEFR) artificial muscle technique. Sci Rep 11:5497, 2021) that previous study concentrated on just single bio actuator in deformable airfoil. This work offers a general artificial muscle which it employs the hybrid of mixed electrolysis (electrolysis module with 10 mL capacity without any separation of materials such as O2 or H2), two fluids for chemical reaction (sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3 (s)) and acetic acid (CH3COOH (l))) and also multilayer soft skin bags (40 × 30 mm). The analyzed parameters are amount of displacement (contraction/expansion) over time (response time), the ratio of output force to total weight and extremely low expense of manufacturing. The main results are as follows: the released energy from 1 mL sodium bicarbonate, 10 mL acetic acid and a 12 V electrolysis module have ability to give a response time less than 1 s (25 mm expansion and 4 mm contraction) with 12 W power consumption and also bio actuator can easily displace a 250 g object (total weight of components is almost 33 g). Also, it has been shown that the response time of mixed electrolysis in the proposed inactive solution (without any fresh chemical reaction) will be nine times to pure water. In the active solution (refresh chemical reaction), response time of HEFR will be accelerated 2.44 times to pure chemical reaction. By applying the multilayer soft skin bags or soft actuators (multi contraction and multi expansion model), a practical movable flapping wing has been presented which a full cycle of flapping would take 2 s. The proposed method has ability to show a quick response time, without making any noise, very low construction cost and practical for general and frequent uses.

Simulation of Aerodynamic Performances of Flexible Flapping Wing Airfoils

Compared with fixed wings, the flapping wing has a significant aerodynamic performance advantage at low speeds and low Reynolds numbers, which draws more and more attentions. But most previous studies focus on rigid flapping airfoils, the aerodynamic performances of flexible flapping airfoils are still unclear. A fluid-solid coupling model for the flexible elliptical airfoils was developed to analyze the flow field around the airfoil, the airfoil deformation and the aerodynamic characteristics of airfoils, at different wind speeds and attack angles. Compared with the rigid airfoil, the flexible airfoil can delay the shedding time of the wake vortex and reduce the oscillation frequency of the disturbance on the lift force. The flexible airfoil significantly suppresses the disturbance of the wake flow and reduces the oscillation amplitude of disturbance. Even, the airfoil disturbance oscillation can be completely eliminated at an appropriate Young’s modulus of the airfoil. These results provide a theoretical guidance for the design of soft aircraft.

Study on Flow Mechanism of a Morphing Supercritical Airfoil

In order to maintain the best performance in flight, a new concept, morphing aircraft, has been proposed, which can change the real-time aerodynamic characteristics under different flight conditions. The key problem is to figure out the response of strong flow instability caused by structure changes during the morphing. To solve this problem, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and wind tunnel tests (WTT) were employed. The results show that the deformation of thickness and camber angle of the airfoil will significantly change the distribution of pressure and result in obvious hysteresis loops of lift and drag. With the increase of deformation frequency and amplitude, the instability increases correspondingly. Moreover, the unsteady effect caused by camber deformation is much stronger than that caused by thickness deformation. In addition, the flow structures on the airfoil, such as the shock strength and boundary separation location, have a delay in response to structure changes. Therefore, there will be a hysteresis between airfoil deformation and aerodynamic characteristics, which means strong flow instability.

Deformable airfoil using hybrid of mixed integration electrolysis and fluids chemical reaction (HEFR) artificial muscle technique

In this research, by inspiration of natural myosin motion in artificial muscle contraction, a new method for changing the thickness of an airfoil has been proposed by hybrid of mixed integration electrolysis module and chemical reaction (HEFR) of sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3 (s)) and acetic acid (CH3COOH (l)). The mentioned method has the ability to create pressure in the fluid in a short time and fast transfer without delay due to the integration of the method in the fluid transfer tube to soft sealed skin. With soft sealed skin swelling and movement of solid skeletal structure, the force is transmitted to the desired mechanism. First, for a single of soft skin and solid structure, remarkable displacement over time in the various loading condition (by the inflation tester) has been investigated. It is shown that the proposed mechanism is capable of moving 246 g during 3 s with total mechanism weight of 10 g. In the following, the mechanism is developed into a symmetrical rhombus (set of soft skin-solid structure) with the ability to contract and expand to provide variable airfoil thickness. The proposed mechanism has the ability to move in the horizontal and vertical axis (expansion and contraction) in lower than 5 s by applying the HEFR technique. Such a mechanism is mounted on a symmetrical airfoil and has the ability to change the airfoil thickness with the appropriate response time. The proposed mechanism can be used in various industrial applications such as robotics.

Numerical Study on Aerodynamic Performance of Different Forms of Adaptive Blades for Vertical Axis Wind Turbines

The wind energy exploitation technique has been developed very quickly in recent years. The vertical axis wind turbine is a hot research domain due to several advantages: low noise, flexible for installation, ease of maintenance, great safety and credibility, etc. The aerodynamic performances of different forms of airfoils including an active deformation airfoil and a fluid-solid coupling passive airfoil with two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) cases have been investigated numerically in this paper. Firstly, the aerodynamic performances of the airfoils with the maximum deformation amplitudes of their cambers which are 3%, 5% and 7% of the chord length have been discussed, respectively, with the angles of attack in the range of 0° and 20°. Secondly, for the angle of attack set at 18°, the two-way fluid-solid coupling simulations with the Young’s Modulus of 1 Mpa and 2 Mpa have also been investigated. Results show that: (1) for the pseudo 3D and real 3D single active deformation airfoil cases, the lift coefficients increase as the maximum deformation amplitudes augment from 3% to 7% of the chord length at the same angle of attack. With the same maximum deformation amplitude, when the angles of attack increase from 0° to 20°, the lift coefficients which increase firstly and then decrease are bigger than that of the original NACA0012 airfoil. When the maximum deformation amplitude of the pseudo 3D airfoil reaches 5% of the chord length, a relatively good aerodynamic performance with better inhibition effect of vortex generation can be obtained. The 3D vortex distribution demonstrates that the deformable airfoil has a better vortex generation controlling effect at the middle cross-section along the spanwise direction than the non-deformable airfoil. (2) From the aspect of fluid-solid coupling, the lift increases and the drag decreases so that the lift to drag ratio has a big improvement when the Young’s Modulus is equal to 1 Mpa and 2 Mpa. The deformable airfoil can inhibit the generation and the shedding of the surface vortex when the fluid-solid coupling effect is considered.

Numerical investigation of dynamic stall reduction on helicopter blade section in forward flight by an airfoil deformation method

In the present work, airflow over blade section of helicopter rotor in forward flight is investigated numerically to offer a proposal for reduction or alleviation of dynamic stall on retreating blade. Unsteady 2-D compressible Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations are solved at flow conditions experienced by retreating blade of UH-60A helicopter rotor. For validation and verification purposes, flows around static and pitching airfoils in constant and variable flow Mach numbers are simulated and compared with other numerical results and experimental data. Having defined two deformation parameters, nine different permanently-deformed airfoils are produced from SSC-A09 airfoil. Flow field around these nine airfoils are simulated in variable flow Mach number with defined pitching angles. Coefficients of $$C_{{\text{l}}}$$ , $$C_{{\text{d}}}$$ and $$C_{{\text{m}}}$$ of these deformed SSC-A09 airfoils are compared with those of original airfoil to demonstrate that airfoil deformation proposed here is able to reduce and alleviate dynamic stall. Quantitatively, $$C_{{{\text{d}},\max }}$$ and absolute value of $$C_{{{\text{m}},\min }}$$ have been reduced up to 49.2% and 25%, respectively. In addition it is worth to mention that in some flow conditions dynamic stall is even eliminated with the proposed airfoil deformation. These are all achieved by permanent airfoil deformation which does not impose design complexities and expenses needed by dynamic airfoil deformation as proposed by others.

Influence of Airfoil Deformation of Human-Powered Aircraft in Flight to Aerodynamic Performance

A wing of a human-powered airplane is generally constructed with foam, balsa wood, plastic film and CFRP to achieve light-weight structure. Thus, the structure can be bent and deformed easily. The change of the wing shape may cause the performance degradation. In this study, we physically built the deformed wing model to measure the deformation by using 3D scanner. CFD was used to investigate the influence of the deformation of airfoil on aerodynamic performance in cruise condition through the comparison with original shape. As a result, the deformation causes the fluctuation of pressure distribution, and it also deteriorates the aerodynamic coefficient.

Energy extraction properties of a flapping wing with a deformable airfoil

Flapping wing devices have attracted considerable attention as a new means of power extraction. The present study applies transient numerical calculations based on the dynamic mesh technique to investigate the influences of leading edge, trailing edge, or overall circular arc airfoil deformations on the power extraction efficiencies of a flapping wing device under the condition of maintaining a constant arc length along the mean camber line of the foil. The results indicate that airfoil deformations can improve the power extraction efficiency of the flapping wing device. The primary reason is that the active synchronised deformation of the foil increases the effective curvature and the velocity circulation around the foil. In addition, the performance curve of the flapping wing device exhibits two frequency ranges with relative high efficiency. In the low frequency region, if the leading edge vortex (LEV) detaches from the trailing edge just as the foil reverses its heaving direction, the foil will gain much more energy due to the positive power extraction of the pitching moment. In the high frequency region, a small steady body-attached vortex (BAV) maintains a high lift, and, thus, the device extracts more power due to the enhanced heaving force.

Flapping wing energy harvesting: aerodynamic aspects

Aerodynamic forces on flapping wings create forward thrust. Natural flyers like birds and insects apply these forces effectively. Extensive studies have shown that the efficiency of flapping wings can be improved by various means. Of importance is the development and control of leading edge vortices (LEV’s). Thrust production means that energy is transferred from the flapping system into the fluid. In a similar way it can be achieved that energy flows from the fluid into the flapping system, i.e. fluid energy may be harvested. Responsible for the direction of energy flow is the ratio of pitching amplitude versus amplitude of the induced incidence of the plunging motion. If this ratio is smaller than unity thrust energy is produced; if it is larger than unity energy is transferred into the flapping system. In the present paper, emphasis is placed on the detailed study of the aerodynamic effects and on some ideas of optimization of energy harvesting of a flapping system. It will be shown that similar to the thrust production mode also in the energy harvesting mode, the influence of LEV’s is of major concern. The control of these vortices by airfoil deformation is shown to be beneficial for optimizing the efficiency of energy harvesting.

Simulation Analysis of Airfoil Deformation of Agricultural UAV under Airflow Disturbance Based on ANSYS

In order to meet the needs of analysis and correction of measurement errors in airborne distributed POS systems, the simulation analysis method of airfoil deformation of agricultural unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) based on ANSYS, which is carried out under airflow disturbance, is discussed in this paper. The Pro/E virtual model data is imported into the ANSYS STRUCTURAL module, and the airfoil structure and material property parameters are set; the atmospheric turbulence model based on the k-epsilon model is established by using the ANSYS Fluent fluid dynamics module, the fluid boundary conditions are set in combination with the airfoil virtual structure, then the surface pressure value of the airfoil is obtained by finite element analysis; finally, combining the virtual structure and material information of the airfoil, the deformation parameters of different points of the airfoil relative to the fixed end can be simulated and solved. The method and result are studied in this paper to provide a reference for the analysis of the influence of airflow disturbance on the airfoil morphology and the evaluation of the POS measurement error.

Development of an Aeroelastic Formulation for Deformable Airfoils Using Orthogonal Polynomials

In this paper, an aeroelastic formulation is developed to analyze aeroelastic behavior of flexible airfoils with arbitrary camber deformations. The camberwise bending deformation of flexible airfoils, described by using the orthogonal Legendre polynomials, is considered in addition to traditional rigid-body plunging and pitching motions. The complete set of aeroelastic equations of motion is derived by following Hamilton’s principle, where a two-dimensional finite-state unsteady aerodynamic theory is applied to calculate the aerodynamic loads of flexible airfoils with both rigid-body motions and arbitrary camber deformations. The finite-state aerodynamic theory is also modified to involve magnitudes of the Legendre polynomials in the aerodynamic load equations. The aeroelastic equations, featuring rigid-body motions and camber deformation magnitudes as independent degrees of freedom, may facilitate the analysis of camber effects on aeroelastic characteristics of flexible airfoils. Numerical studies of this paper validate the developed aerodynamic and aeroelastic formulations by comparison with other published research and computational results. Finally, the impacts of camber flexibility on static and dynamic aeroelastic characteristics of flexible airfoils are explored.

Aero-Structural Evaluation of Morphing Control Surface Using Corrugated Panels

Morphing wing technology is anticipated as a way to improve efficiency over a wider range of flight conditions, but it is difficult to realize morphing because there are two conflicting demands, i.e. stiffness for aerodynamic forces and flexibility for morphing. Super-anisotropy of the corrugated panel is a solution to satisfy those demands. This paper focuses on applying camber morphing to vertical plane. Firstly, optimal deformation of airfoil for morphing control surfaces is defined by conducting airfoil analysis. For realizing optimal deformation, deformation analysis of corrugated panels is conducted and evaluated by using high flexible 2-D beam equations.