Design Fabrication of Adaptive Wing Structure

Abstract

This paper presents the design and fabrication work of adaptive wing using hybrid composite based on their structural response to shape memory alloy (SMA) actuation. The objectives of this study include designing a smart morphing wing, validating its structural response through computational and experimental analysis, and studying actuator placement in the adaptive wing. The computational analysis on the structural and aerodynamic performance is done with MSc Patran/Nasran and ANSYS Fluent respectively. The structural response observed is quite similar with computational analysis. From the obtained results, it can be taken that different actuator placement will produce a different profile of camber due to material stiffness and deflection. The actuator placement for the adaptive wing in this study has been found to produce positive camber and improve lift and drag aerodynamic performance.