Design optimization of deployable wings.

摘要

Morphing technology is an important aspect of UAV design, particularly in regards to deployable systems. The design of such system has an important impact on the vehicle's performance. The primary focus of the present research work was to determine the most optimum deployable wing design from 3 competing designs and develop one of the deployable wing designs to test in the research facility. A Matlab code was developed to optimize 3 deployable wing concepts inflatable, inflatable telescopic and rigid-folding wings based on a sequential optimization strategy. The constraints that were part of the code include the packaging constraints during its stowed state, fixed length of the deployed section and the minimum L/D constraint. This code resulted in determining the optimum weight of all the 3 designs, the most optimum weight design is the inflatable wing design. This is a result of the flexible skin material and also due to no rigid parts in the deployed wing section. Another goal of the research involved developing an inflatable telescopic wing. The prototype was tested in a wind tunnel, while the actual wing was tested in the altitude chamber to determine the deployment speed, input pressure, analyze and predict the deployment sequence and behavior of the wing at such high wind speeds and altitudes ranging from 60,000 ft to 90,000 ft. Results from these tests allowed us to conclude the deployment sequence of the telescopic wing followed from the root to the tip section. The results were used to analyze the deployment time of the wing. As expected the deployment time decreased with an increase in input pressure. The results also show us that as the altitude increases, the deployment speed of the wing also increased. This was demonstrated when the wing was tested at a maximum altitude pressure of 90,000ft, well above the design altitude of 60,000ft.