Span Morphing: A Conceptual Design Study

The use of variable wing span to enhance flight performance and control authority of high endurance, medium altitude UAV is investigated. Asymmetric span extension is used to replace ailerons and maintain roll control over the entire flight envelope of the vehicle. The span extension required to generate a rolling moment equal to that produced by ailerons is estimated at four flight points. The study is performed using Tornado Vortex Lattice Method (VLM). 36% increase in wing semi-span is required to maintain roll authority. On the other hand, symmetric span morphing is used to reduce induced drag and enhance the endurance capability of the vehicle. 20% symmetric span morphing was found to be the optimum to reduce the overall drag of the wing by 10% at the start of cruise and 2.5% at the end of cruise. The morphing wing structure is to be designed using Zero Poisson’s ratio Accordion honeycomb with elastomeric skins. The geometry of the honeycomb will be optimised using the Genetic Algorithm (GA) optimiser to minimise the structural weight of the wing while meeting various design constraints.