Advanced Wind Tunnel Testing of Morphing Aircraft Structures

Prof Jonathan Cooper School of Engineering, University of Liverpool

ACARE 20-20 Vision

EU Aerospace Industry Initiative 50% reduction by 2020 of: aircraft fuel use, emissions noise Combination of approaches needed Propulsion Aerodynamics Structures Morphing Aircraft Structures have promise to contribute to objectives Multidisciplinary approach

A Change of Viewpoint
Recent research has started to consider using aeroelastic effects rather than fighting against them

Back to the Future Ed Pendleton

Morphing Aircraft
Change aircraft characteristics to achieve better performance or enable tasks to be completed that could not otherwise be achieved Configuration morphing Change mission in flight Best shape for point in flight envelope Performance morphing Change on structural properties Stiffness / Camber / Leading and Trailing Edges Improve performance Drag / Roll Control / Load reduction

Not a New Idea (1)

All-movable drag control devices

Active camber control

Active leading edge surfaces

(Lilienthal Vorflgelapparat 1895)

Not a New Idea (2)

Wing warping for roll control

Some EU Research Projects

3AS wide range of adaptive structural devices aiming at improved performance SMorph reduced drag morphing design adaptive attachments smart materials SADE high lift devices Morphlet wing tip devices

Rotating Spars Prototype

Roll Control Using Rotating Spars

Adaptive Stiffness Attachments

All-moving vertical tails Fin attached via single attachment Enables greater aeroelastic effectiveness Need to have adaptive stiffness attachment
Smaller Shape Torsional Axis

Conventional Multiple Attachment Vertical Tail

All-Moving Vertical Tail

Adaptive Stiffness

Wind Tunnel Tests

Adaptive Gust Alleviation Device

Application to Sensorcraft

Further application to winglets

3AS EuRAM Model

Current Status
Adaptive Aeroelastic Structures have been shown feasibility of changing aircraft shape via stiffness changes Current work investigating implementation and benefit for full-scale aircraft. Demonstrated experimentally on small scale bench, wind tunnel and RPV structures Some computational studies on full scale aircraft (CLEAN SKY) evaluating performance for typical missions defining requirements of morphing structures

Requirement
Current Demonstrators Mostly proof of concept Rudimentary or elegant / not practical Need to reach higher TRLs No general performance can be concluded 3AS tests at TsAGI have been the largest scale Transonic Wind Tunnel Testing Need to investigate / demonstrate morphing applications at flight equivalent dynamic pressures / Reynolds numbers Aeroelastically scaled wind tunnel model with several morphing concepts Raising the TRL level of morphing Validation of aeroelastic modelling required to optimise morphing designs

Test Requirements
Test conditions range of subsonic and transonic Mach numbers different Reynolds numbers different angles of attack Measurements for varying morphing parameters static deflections non contact probes lift drag pressure distributions (steady and insteady) dynamic response to some initial disturbance non contact probes / accelerometers strain gauge measurements