Title Investigation of performance gains on a sailplane with morphing wing trailing edge /
Authors Lendraitis, Martynas
DOI 10.5755/j01.mech.25.4.22325
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Is Part of Mechanika.. Kaunas : KTU. 2019, vol. 25, no. 4, p. 299-303.. ISSN 1392-1207. eISSN 2029-6983
Keywords [eng] morphing ; flap ; aerodynamics ; optimization
Abstract [eng] Increasing the performance of a modern sailplane is challenging. Most of the known valid approaches have already been applied in practice. Morphing technology, which could allow to adapt to various flight stages is yet to be applied. An investigation of possible flight performance benefits of such technology is carried out here. Using a genetic algorithm, a morphing trailing edge flap for airfoil HQ-17 is formed for -4 degrees and +12 degrees flap deflections. The performance is evaluated and compared with a regular flap, which shows that for the HQ-17 airfoil, drag could be reduced by up to 36% in comparison with regular flap. To show the advantage of morphing flaps, a hypothetical sailplane wing is modeled and evaluated with morphing and conventional flaps using non-linear LLT method. Results show that incorporation of a morphing flap could extend the flight envelope and increase the L/D ratio by 2-5% through the full flight speed range.
Published Kaunas : KTU
Type Journal article
Language English
Publication date 2019
CC license CC license description