Lessons learned from wind tunnel testing of a droop-nose morphing wingtip

Srinivas Vasista; Johannes Riemenschneider; Bram van de Kamp; Hans Peter Monner; Ronald C. M. Cheung; Christopher Wales; Jonathan Cooper

doi:10.1117/12.2219163

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15 April 2016 Lessons learned from wind tunnel testing of a droop-nose morphing wingtip

Srinivas Vasista, Johannes Riemenschneider, Bram van de Kamp, Hans Peter Monner, Ronald C. M. Cheung, Christopher Wales, Jonathan Cooper

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Proceedings Volume 9799, Active and Passive Smart Structures and Integrated Systems 2016; 979929 (2016) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2219163
Event: SPIE Smart Structures and Materials + Nondestructive Evaluation and Health Monitoring, 2016, Las Vegas, Nevada, United States

Abstract

This work presents the lessons learned from wind tunnel tests of a droop-nose morphing wingtip as part of the EU project NOVEMOR. The design followed a sequential chain and was largely driven through optimization tools, including a glass-fiber composite skin optimization tool and a topology optimization tool for the design of internal super-elastic and aluminium compliant mechanisms. The device was tested in the low speed tunnel at the University of Bristol to determine the structural response under aerodynamic loading. Measurements of strain from strain gauges show that the structure is capable of handing the aerodynamic loads though also show an imbalance of strain between the components. Measurements of surface pressures show a small variation of c^p with the 2° droop morphing variation as per the target. The wind tunnel testing showed that further developments to the design chain are necessary, in particular the need for a concurrent as opposed to sequential chain for the design of the various components. Considerations of other problem formulations, the inclusion of nonlinear finite element analysis, and ways to interpret the structural boundary of the topology optimization results with more confidence are required. The utilization of super-elastic materials in morphing structures may also prove to be highly beneficial for their performance.

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Srinivas Vasista, Johannes Riemenschneider, Bram van de Kamp, Hans Peter Monner, Ronald C. M. Cheung, Christopher Wales, and Jonathan Cooper "Lessons learned from wind tunnel testing of a droop-nose morphing wingtip", Proc. SPIE 9799, Active and Passive Smart Structures and Integrated Systems 2016, 979929 (15 April 2016); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2219163

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