Demonstration of Adaptive Structures Performance On Modular Micro Air Vehicle

Demonstration of the performance of adaptive structures on air vehicles in general has been a rather difficult subject. Different reasons such as cost, risk, actuator capability, time and possibly also others have prevented this performance to be demonstrated exhaustively. Micro aerial vehicles (MAVs) are small aircraft that operate at low Reynolds numbers, which is a condition similar to what birds and insects operate in. Therefore many nature inspired adaptive structures can be studied. In this paper a MAV of 40 cm wing span and 25 cm length with a Zimmerman plane from wing is considered as the basic design as shown in Fig. 1. Based on modular approach, adaptive structures such as a vector thrust propulsion system, morphing wing thickness change, flexible stiffness wing, variable V-tail angle, and a variable angle winglet is to be applied on virtually the same MAV platform. The different options have been studied numerically through a mixture of Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) and Finite element analysis, leading to a Fluid Solid/Structure Interaction (FSI) method used to study the effect of the aeroelasticity on the different adaptive structures considered. Simulated results have then been validated though static, wind tunnel and flight tests.