An investigation of the morphing winglet concept on a Medium Altitude Long Endurance Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (MALE UAV) platform by means of CFD is presented in this work. The baseline wing and winglet configurations correspond to an already existing MALE UAV platform, whereas the winglet cant angle is selected as the morphing parameter. More specifically, seven different cant angle configurations are computationally examined in three pre-defined flight segments, at several angles of attack, by solving the RANS equations. Using the data from the computational analyses, the polynomial equations that best describe the lift curve, drag polar, L/D ratio, and root bending moment are extracted through interpolation and the performance maps of the morphing wingtip are drawn. The potential benefits are evaluated using dedicated performance metrics, by employing in-house performance assessment tools. A morphing mechanism, along with its corresponding weight penalty and integration issues are also presented and discussed. The results of this study show that the morphing winglet concept can be used to fine-tune the flight performance of a long endurance UAV, by adopting on the needs of the various mission segments on-demand.
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