Discretization Method for the Development of a Modular Morphing Wing

Abstract

This paper presents a discretization method for the development of a modular morphing wing. The proposed method determines the number of morphing wing modules and the respective spacing required to emulate a known wing shape and satisfy a corresponding flight requirement. This method consists of two steps. The first step is geometry discretization. In this step, curvature and twist distribution from the reference wing shape quarter chord line are extracted and used to determine the spacing of the discretized wing modules. This is achieved by clustering moretightlyspacedmorphingwingmodulesinareasoflargetotalcurvature,andfewerlongerwingmodulesinareas of small total curvature. By doing so, geometric congruency between the reference and discretized wings is maintained.Thesecondstepisperformanceevaluation.Inthisstep,anaerodynamicperformanceindex(suchasthe lift-to-drag ratio) for a given flight regime is used to evaluate the effectiveness of each modular morphing wing configuration.Optimalmorphingwingmodulesaredetermineduntilanacceptable flightperformanceisachievedby thediscretizedwing.Theeffectivenessoftheproposeddiscretizationalgorithmisdemonstratedthroughacasestudy by determining an optimal number of modules for a modular morphing wing.