Design and Aerodynamic Analysis of a Morphing Wing with Shape Memory Alloy Actuator

The scope of the current investigation incorporates the entire process involved in design and development of a Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) actuated wing intended to fulfill morphing missions. At the design step, a two Degree-of-Freedom (DOF) mechanism is designed that is appropriate for morphing wing applications. The mechanism is developed in such a way that it can undergo different two DOF, i.e. gull and sweep, so that the wing can have maneuvers that are more efficient. Smart materials commonly are selected as the actuators due to their suitable thermo-mechanical characteristics. Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) actuators are capable of providing more efficient mechanisms in comparison to the conventional actuators due to their large force/stroke generation, smaller size with high capabilities in limited spaces, and lower weight. As SMA wires have nonlinear hysteresis behavior, their modeling should be implemented in a meticulous way. In this work, after proposing a two DOF morphing wing, an aerodynamic analysis of the whole wing for unmorphed and morphed wings is presented. The results show that the performance of the morphed wing in special flight regimes is improved.