Design and Optimization of a Bennett–Spherical Scissor Mechanism Suitable for Driving Aerial–Aquatic Rotor Deformation

Abstract

This paper aims to design a deformable mechanism to drive amphibious rotor blade deform from an aerial shape to an aquatic one. The Bennett four-bar and spherical four-bar mechanisms are used as the basic units (B unit and S unit) to form the Bennett–spherical spatial scissor unit (BS unit). By analyzing the kinematic characteristics of the BS unit, it is found that the BS unit can achieve the spatial deformation of expansion and torsion, effectively improving the rotor’s performance in water and air media. The wing rib support structure, which is fixed to the BS unit linkage, is designed. The coordinate transformation method describes the blade shape in aerial and aquatic modes using BS unit and rib parameters. To improve the rotor blade performance in air and water, the rotor blade design is carried out under the NSGA-II framework with BS parameters as the design variables. The Gaussian regression and CFD methods are applied to build a surrogate model to reduce the computational cost. The results show that the expansion–torsional deformation of the BS unit can effectively increase the air and water compatibility of the rotor blades. When the rotor is an aerial shape, the BS mechanism extends and decreases the torsion to increase the lift and efficiency. When it is deformed to an aquatic shape, the BS mechanism reduces its length and increases the torsion to reduce the torque effectively. The BS scissor unit and the design method can be effectively applied in the design of deformable rotor blades.