Effects of an Unsteady Morphing Wing with Seamless Side-Edge Transition on Aerodynamic Performance

Chawki Abdessemed, Abdessalem Bouferrouk and Yufeng Yao
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Chawki Abdessemed: Propulsion Engineering Centre, School of Aerospace Transport and Manufacturing, Cranfield University, Bedfordshire MK43 0AL, UK
Abdessalem Bouferrouk: School of Engineering, University of the West of England, Coldharbour Lane, Frenchay, Bristol BS16 1QY, UK
Yufeng Yao: School of Engineering, University of the West of England, Coldharbour Lane, Frenchay, Bristol BS16 1QY, UK

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 3, 1-27

Abstract: This paper presents an unsteady flow analysis of a 3D wing with a morphing trailing edge flap (TEF) and a seamless side-edge transition between the morphed and static parts of a wing by introducing an unsteady parametrization method. First, a 3D steady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) analysis of a statically morphed TEF with seamless transition is performed and the results are compared with both a baseline clean wing and a wing with a traditional hinged flap configuration at a Reynolds number of 0.7 × 10 6 for a range of angles of attack (AoA), from 4° to 15°. This study extends some previous published work by examining the inherent unsteady 3D effects due to the presence of the seamless transition. It is found that in the pre-stall regime, the statically morphed wing produces a maximum of a 22% higher lift and a near constant drag reduction of 25% compared with the hinged flap wing, resulting in up to 40% enhancement in the aerodynamic efficiency (i.e., lift/drag ratio). Second, unsteady flow analysis of the dynamically morphing TEF with seamless flap side-edge transition is performed to provide further insights into the dynamic lift and drag forces during the flap motions at three pre-defined morphing frequencies of 4 Hz, 6 Hz, and 8 Hz, respectively. Results have shown that an initially large overshoot in the drag coefficient is observed due to unsteady flow effects induced by the dynamically morphing wing; the overshoot is proportional to the morphing frequency which indicates the need to account for dynamic morphing effects in the design phase of a morphing wing.

Keywords: bio-inspiration; morphing wing; dynamic mesh; deformation; computational fluid dynamics; Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes; turbulent flow; turbulence models; aerodynamic performance at stall (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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