Multibody Dynamic Modeling and Simulation of a Tailless Folding Wing Morphing Aircraft

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to model and simulate a tailless folding wing morphing aircraft in wing folding process. The wing area and other parameters of morphing aircraft largely change when morphing, which will affect the aerodynamic force acting on the aircraft and lead to a variation of movements in the morphing process. The dynamic model of tailless folding wing morphing aircraft in wing folding process was founded and the six-DOF nonlinear equation was deduced. Furthermore, the decoupled longitudinal dynamic equation of morphing process was presented by simplifying. And the result of numeric simulation of aerodynamic force in wing folding process shows that the aerodynamic force is approximate to the steady state. The longitudinal response of morphing process in different wing fold angular velocities was numerically simulated by quasi-steady aerodynamic assumption when taking no account of the unsteady aerodynamic effect in small wing fold angular velocities. And the key factors which affect the dynamical characteristics of morphing process of the tailless folding wing morphing aircraft were investigated by quantity. The research results can be as great reference for the flight control system design in morphing and evaluating the morphing flight safety at low altitude of morphing aircraft.