Design, Manufacturing, and Testing of a New Concept for a Morphing Leading Edge using a Subsonic Blow Down Wind Tunnel

Abstract

This paper presents the design and wind tunnel test results of a wing including a morphing leading edge for a medium unmanned aerial vehicle with a maximum wingspan of 5 m. The design of the morphing leading edge system is part of research on the design of a morphing camber system. The concept presented here has the advantage of being simple to manufacture (wooden construction) and light for the structure of the wing (compliance mechanism). The morphing leading edge prototype demonstrates the possibility of modifying the stall angle of the wing. In addition, the modification of the stall angle is performed without affecting the slope of the lift coefficient. This prototype is designed to validate the functionality of the deformation method applied to the leading edge of the wing. The mechanism can be further optimized in terms of shape and material to obtain a greater deformation of the leading edge, and, thus, to have a higher impact on the increase of the stall angle than the first prototype of the morphing leading edge presented in this paper.

Flow Control around the UAS-S45 Pitching Airfoil Using a Dynamically Morphing Leading Edge (DMLE): A Numerical Study

“…The Research Laboratory in Active Controls, Avionics, and AeroServoElasticity (LARCASE) team is studying several approaches for reducing fuel consumption [ 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 ], including the use of morphing wing technologies, such as the morphing leading edge prototype demonstrates the possibility of modifying the stall angle of the wing. It was shown that the stall angle of the wing was delayed using a downward deformation of the leading edge [ 17 , 18 ]. An experimental and numerical analysis was carried out for a UAS-S45 wing geometry with the aim to improve the laminar flow on the upper surface of the wing, between 10% and 70% of the chord [ 19 , 20 , 21 ].…”

Analysis and Design of a Leading Edge with Morphing Capabilities for the Wing of a Regional Aircraft—Gapless Chord- and Camber-Increase for High-Lift Performance

“…Communier and co-workers experimentally and numerically demonstrated that morphing leading edge concepts can potentially replace traditional leading-edge devices in terms of their aerodynamic properties [9]. However, for the design of a morphing leading edge, the aerodynamic efficiency is not solely important.…”