Longitudinal Aeroelastic Flight Simulations of Active Morphing Aircraft with Corrugated Structures

Morphing technology can potentially improve the aerodynamic and flight performance of aircraft. A flexible trailing edge structure with corrugated panels is one of the promising candidates for camber morphing. While the aerodynamic advantages of the morphing concept have been proved, its performance in flight control situations remains to be investigated. This study develops a multidisciplinary simulation framework for aircraft with morphing control surfaces, combining the finite element method, unsteady vortex lattice method, rigid-body flight dynamics, and the linear quadratic integration controller. Flight maneuvers in pitch rate are simulated for morphing aircraft with different structural designs and flight conditions. The results demonstrate that control performance by morphing can be degraded due to the aeroelastic behavior of morphing control surfaces, and this phenomenon can be predicted by the proposed design index.