Combined droop nose and trailing-edges morphing effects on airfoils aerodynamics

Abstract

Airfoils’ morphing offers benefits to traditional aerodynamics characteristics flight such drag saving and better maneuver skills for aircrafts by different means. The current study introduces a parametric optimization for the effect of droop nose and trailing-edges morphing on airfoils aerodynamics characteristics. The study has conducted using the X-FOIL imported in MATLAB program and ANSYS Fluent software. The first used as a prelude parametric study for the numerical simulations. The morphed airfoil configuration parameterized with four variables: leading and trailing edges deflections, δ1, δ2 and the morphing lengths E1, E2. The results from X-FOIL showed increase in stall angle up to 26° and lift to drag ratio up to 120. The more accurate simulation results showed increase of stall angle up to 20° and lift to drag ratio increased up to 6.22% compared to basic airfoil at separate morphed shapes. The lift coefficient increased also up to 1.34. The study also introduces morphing control to insure maximum lift coefficient during the variety of operating angle of attack.