Passive Morphing of Solar Powered Flying Wing Aircraft
High Altitude, Long Endurance (HALE) aircraft can achieve sustained uninterrupted flight time if they use solar power. Wing morphing of solar powered HALE aircraft can significantly increase solar energy absorbency. An example of the kind of morphing cons
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Abstract High Altitude, Long Endurance (HALE) aircraft can achieve sustained uninterrupted flight time if they use solar power. Wing morphing of solar powered HALE aircraft can significantly increase solar energy absorbency. An example of the kind of morphing considered in this paper requires the wings to fold so as to orient a solar panel to be hit more directly by the sun’s rays at specific times of the day. In this paper solar powered HALE flying wing aircraft are modeled with three beams with lockable hinge connections. Such aircraft are shown to be capable of morphing passively, following the sun by means of aerodynamic forces and engine thrusts. The analysis underlying Nonlinear Aeroelastic Trim And Stability of HALE Aircraft (NATASHA), a computer program that benefits from geometrically exact, fully intrinsic beam equations, and a finite-state-induced flow model was extended to include the ability to simulate morphing of the aircraft into a ‘‘Z’’ configuration. Because of the ‘‘long endurance’’ feature of HALE aircraft, such morphing needs to be done without relying on actuators and as near zero energy cost as possible. The emphasis of this study is to substantially demonstrate the processes required to passively morph a flying into a Z- shaped configuration and back again.
1 Introduction A morphing flying wing can maximize the energy absorption of solar panels on the wing surfaces by changing its configuration such that the panels have highest exposure to the sun. In this study a solar powered High Altitude, Long Endurance P. Mardanpour (&) D. H. Hodges Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Georgia 30332-0150, Atlanta e-mail: [email protected] D. H. Hodges e-mail: [email protected]
Y. Zhou et al. (eds.), Fluid-Structure-Sound Interactions and Control, Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering, DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-40371-2_50, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014
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P. Mardanpour and D. H. Hodges
(HALE) flying wing aircraft is considered to morph into a ‘‘Z’’ configuration to allow for sustained uninterrupted flight. Energy absorption of this aircraft is maximized if the sun exposure of the solar panels distributed on the wings is maximized; see Fig. 1. For this purpose a three-wing HALE flying wing follows the sun and morphs passively (without actuators at the hinges and only making use of aerodynamic force and thrust) into a Z-shaped configuration, while the bending moments about hinge lines at the beam connections are zero. To capture these phenomena, NATASHA has been augmented with new equations to analyze aeroelastic trim, stability, and time marching of such aircraft. Local bending moments are zeroed out at the beam connection points while the hinges are locked and kept at zero while the aircraft morphs. The morphing motion is brought to a stop before the hinges are again locked. The emphasis of this study is to demonstrate the systematic processes required for passive morphing of a flying wing with Z-shaped configuration.
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