This paper presents a camber morphing technique for wing structures relying on chiral topologies with tunable stiffness. The unique cellular pattern of the proposed chiral structure leads to a large tailorability of the highly nonlinear mechanical response, while simultaneously allowing for high deformability under global planar deformations. These characteristics are exploited to design selectively compliant wing ribs to achieve a reversible chordwise shape adaptation mechanism. The morphing capabilities of wing structures using the proposed chiral honeycomb as compliant ribs are assessed by means of finite elements calculations. The resulting wing design enables unique mechanical responses, such as large zero-stiffness phases. With the potential to drastically reduce the actuation requirements, these can be beneficially exploited for morphing techniques relying on active methods. Purely passive shape adaptation can benefit from the eminent deformation-dependent stiffness variation, showing potential to be successfully implemented for load alleviation purposes. Techniques to further augment the design space of the proposed structural concept are introduced, allowing for even greater tailorability of the resulting mechanical response, and therefore extending the applicability of this technique for shape adaptation applications.
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