Static Aeroelastic Beam Model Development for Folding Winglet Design

Wing shape adaptability during flight is the next step towards the greening of aviation. The shape of the wing is typically designed for one cruise point or a weighted average of several cruise points. However, a wing is subjected to a variety of flight conditions, which results in the aircraft flying sub-optimally during a portion of the flight. Shape adaptability can be achieved by tuning the shape of the winglet during flight. The design challenge is to combine a winglet structure that is able to allow the required adaptable shape while preserving the structural integrity to carry the aerodynamic loads. The shape changing actuators must work against the structural strains and the aerodynamic loads. Analyzing the full model in the preliminary design phase is computationally expensive; therefore, it is necessary to develop a model. The goal of this paper is to derive an aeroelastic model for a wing and winglet in order to reduce the computational cost and complexity of the system in designing a folding winglet. In this paper, the static aeroelastic analysis is performed for a regional aircraft wing at sea level and service ceiling conditions with three degree and eight degree angle of attack. MSC Nastran Aeroelastic tool is used to develop a Finite Element Model (FEM), i.e., beam model and the aerodynamic loads are calculated based on a doublet lattice panel method (DLM).