Aero-structural analysis of the morphing trailing edge control surface of a fully morphing unmanned aerial vehicle wing

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Tezin Türü: Yüksek Lisans

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, Mühendislik Fakültesi, Havacılık ve Uzay Mühendisliği Bölümü, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2017

Öğrenci: UĞUR KALKAN

Danışman: MELİN ŞAHİN

Özet:

This thesis investigates the aero-structural analysis of the morphing trailing edge control surface of a fully morphing unmanned aerial vehicle wing for some camber morphing missions. Designed control surface was structurally analyzed with Finite Element Method using ANSYS Workbench v14.0 Static Structural module. Open Cell, Closed Cell designs with some material and thickness changes were studied in order to find the optimum design in terms of minimum weight and structural relevance. Analyses were both performed in-vacuo and under aerodynamic loads. Initially in-vacuo analyses were performed and it was seen that Closed Cell-Neoprene rubber is the best design in terms of stresses, loads and morphing capabilities. Therefore, for Closed Cell-Neoprene rubber design analyses were performed under aerodynamic loads. Aerodynamic pressure distribution over the wing is obtained by Computational Fluid Dynamics analyses. Pointwise v17.2R2 was used to generate aerodynamic mesh and Stanford University Unstructured v3.2.03 was used as a solver. Aerodynamic load on the control surface was obtained by the interpolation method using the Tecplot 360 2013R1 package programme. Results of the analyses showed that designed control surface is capable of performing all the morphing conditions. However 3g and 4g aerodynamic load created bump at the compliant part which is not desired. Considering the weight of control surface Closed Cell – Neoprene rubber design with 1.0 [mm] composite thickness was selected as the best design.