Flight Control Optimization and Wind Tunnel Validation of a Morphing Flying Wing

摘要

Flying wings achieve controllability around the roll, pitch, and yaw axis, exclusively through spanwise variations of the lift and drag. Conventionally, the necessary changes in forces and moments are attained through the deflection of multiple discrete control surfaces distributed along the trailing edge of the wing. In order to accommodate for the different control requirements at various flight conditions, the control surfaces are constantly deflected, resulting in aerodynamic drag penalties, and therefore lower aerodynamic efficiency. Replacing the discrete trailing edge control surfaces through shape adaptive structures has the potential to overcome these aerodynamic drawbacks and can lead to improved efficiency. This work considers a flying wing, relying on a selectively compliant inner structure and a continuous skin deformed by ten evenly distributed electromechanical actuators. The optimal actuation levels of each actuator are obtained through a multi-objective aerostructural optimization for a range of flight speeds and flight conditions, while minimizing the drag. Compared to previous work, an improvement in efficiency of up to 10% was achieved across the complete range of flight speeds and flight maneuvers. The numerical results are validated with wind tunnel tests, confirming the findings identified in the actuation optimization.