scholarly journals Stability Characteristics of Wing Span and Sweep Morphing for Small Unmanned Air Vehicle: A Mathematical Analysis

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Hafiz Muhammad Umer ◽  
Adnan Maqsood ◽  
Rizwan Riaz ◽  
Shuaib Salamat

Morphing aircraft are the flight vehicles that can reconfigure their shape during the flight in order to achieve superior flight performance. However, this promising technology poses cross-disciplinary challenges that encourage widespread design possibilities. This research aims to investigate the flight dynamic characteristics of various morphed wing configurations that can be incorporated in small-scale UAVs. The objective of this study was to analyze the effects of in-flight wing sweep and wingspan morphing on aerodynamic and flight stability characteristics. Longitudinal, lateral, and directional characteristics were evaluated using linearized equations of motion. An open-source code based on Vortex Lattice Method (VLM) assuming quasi-steady flow was used for this purpose. Trim points were identified for a range of angles of attack in prestall regime. The aerodynamic coefficients and flight stability derivatives were compared for the aforementioned morphing schemes with a fixed-wing counterpart. The results indicated that wingspan morphing is better than wing sweep morphing to harness better aerodynamic advantages with favorable flight stability characteristics. However, extension in wingspan beyond certain limits jeopardizes the advantages. Dynamically, wingspan and sweep morphing schemes behave in an exactly opposite way for longitudinal modes, whereas lateral-directional dynamics act in the same fashion for both morphing schemes. The current study provided a baseline to explore the advanced flight dynamic aspects of employed wing morphing schemes.

2012 ◽  
Vol 538-541 ◽  
pp. 2627-2630
Author(s):  
Lai Bin Xu

A simulation methodology suitable for morphing wing aircraft is presented, accounting for the changes in both inertial and aerodynamic properties. The aerodynamics was generated with vortex lattice method and solved concurrently with 6DOF nonlinear extended equations of motion. Due to the wing morphing, there are 4 additional forces and moments exhibiting in the extended equations of motion. The simulation mythology was applied to M-wing morphing aircraft, and the longitudinal dynamic response was analyzed with the wing morphing symmetrically. The results show that the additional forces and moments influence the flight dynamic considerably


Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 261 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andres G. ◽  
Juan S. ◽  
Omar López ◽  
Laura Suárez C, ◽  
Jaime A. Escobar

Globalization has led to an increase in the use of small copters for different activities such as geo-referencing, agricultural fields monitoring, survillance, among others. This is the main reason why there is a strong interest in the performance of small-scale propellers used in unmanned aerial vehicles. The flow developed by rotors is complex and the estimation of its aerodynamic performance is not a trivial process. In addition, viscous effects, when the rotor operates at low Reynolds, affect its performance. In the present paper, two different computational methods, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and the Unsteady Vortex Lattice Method (UVLM) with a viscous correction, were used to study the performance of an isolated rotor of a quadcopter flying at hover. The Multi Reference Frame model and transition S S T κ - ω turbulence model were used in the CFD simulations. The tip vortex core growth was used to account for the viscous effects in the UVLM. The wake structure, pressure coefficient, thrust and torque predictions from both methods are compared. Thrust and torque results from simulations were validated by means of experimental results of a characterization of a single rotor. Finally, figure of merit of the rotor is evaluated showing that UVLM overestimates the efficiency of the rotor; meanwhile, CFD predictions are close to experimental values.


Author(s):  
A W Bloy ◽  
M Jouma'a

Application of a wake roll-up method coupled with the vortex lattice method and approximate expressions for the receiver fuselage effect have been used to determine the induced loads on a Hercules receiver aircraft behind a KC10 tanker. The induced loads depend strongly on the vertical position of the receiver wing and fin relative to the tanker wing wake. In the case of steady sideslip there is a large decrease in the directional stability of the receiver as quantified by the gradient of the rudder angle versus sideslip. This is due mainly to the combined effects of the yawing moments due to bank, yaw and side displacements. Minimum directional stability corresponds to the tip of the receiver fin intersecting the tanker wing wake. The associated aileron angle is two to three times the value in free air in agreement with flight test data. Solution of the linearized equations of motion gives three lateral characteristic oscillations for the air-to-air refuelling case. These include the usual Dutch roll oscillation, a highly damped rolling oscillation and a divergent oscillation involving mainly bank and side displacements.


AIAA Journal ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 35 ◽  
pp. 1230-1233
Author(s):  
Paulo A. O. Soviero ◽  
Hugo B. Resende

2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Sen Mao ◽  
Changchuan Xie ◽  
Lan Yang ◽  
Chao Yang

A morphing trailing-edge (TE) wing is an important morphing mode in aircraft design. In order to explore the static aeroelastic characteristics of a morphing TE wing, an efficient and feasible method for static aeroelastic analysis has been developed in this paper. A geometrically exact vortex lattice method (VLM) is applied to calculate the aerodynamic forces. Firstly, a typical model of a morphing TE wing is chosen and built which has an active morphing trailing edge driven by a piezoelectric patch. Then, the paper carries out the static aeroelastic analysis of the morphing TE wing and corresponding simulations were carried out. Finally, the analysis results are compared with those of a traditional wing with a rigid trailing edge using the traditional linearized VLM. The results indicate that the geometrically exact VLM can better describe the aerodynamic nonlinearity of a morphing TE wing in consideration of geometrical deformation in aeroelastic analysis. Moreover, out of consideration of the angle of attack, the deflection angle of the trailing edge, among others, the wing system does not show divergence but bifurcation. Consequently, the aeroelastic analysis method proposed in this paper is more applicable to the analysis and design of a morphing TE wing.


Author(s):  
Jan Awrejcewicz ◽  
Grzegorz Kudra ◽  
Olga Mazur

AbstractParametric vibrations of the single-layered graphene sheet (SLGS) are studied in the presented work. The equations of motion govern geometrically nonlinear oscillations. The appearance of small effects is analysed due to the application of the nonlocal elasticity theory. The approach is developed for rectangular simply supported small-scale plate and it employs the Bubnov–Galerkin method with a double mode model, which reduces the problem to investigation of the system of the second-order ordinary differential equations (ODEs). The dynamic behaviour of the micro/nanoplate with varying excitation parameter is analysed to determine the chaotic regimes. As well the influence of small-scale effects to change the nature of vibrations is studied. The bifurcation diagrams, phase plots, Poincaré sections and the largest Lyapunov exponent are constructed and analysed. It is established that the use of nonlocal equations in the dynamic analysis of graphene sheets leads to a significant alteration in the character of oscillations, including the appearance of chaotic attractors.


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