Seamless Morphing Wing with SMP Skin

Abstract

Morphing aircraft wings require flexible skins that can undergo large strains, have low in-plane stiffness. In this paper, the sandwiched structure is designed to maintain airfoil shape throughout transition and not to suffer from large out-of-plane deformation under aerodynamic pressure loads. It consists of honeycomb and flexible skin. Honeycomb which is high-strain capable in one direction without dimensional change in the perpendicular in-plane axis provides distributed support to the honeycomb. Flexible skin is used to create the smooth aerodynamic surface. The morphing wing structure is developed together with the sandwiched skin technology. It is capable of changing in chordwise and increasing chord by 20%. Elastomeric and SMP skins are selected for use. Embedded heating wire springs act as the activation system for the SMP. Experiment results show the morphing wing model with elastomeric or SMP skins can be driven successfully by DC motor.