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Acta Aeronautica et Astronautica Sinica ›› 2024, Vol. 45 ›› Issue (6): 629595-629595.doi: 10.7527/S1000-6893.2023.29595

• Special Topic: New Conceptual Aerodynamic Layout Design for Aircraft • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Deformation modes and key technologies of aerodynamic layout design for morphing aircraft: Review

Shusheng CHEN1(), Muliang JIA1, Yanxu LIU1, Zhenghong GAO1, Xinghao XIANG2   

  1. 1.School of Aeronautics,Northwestern Polytechnical University,Xi’an 710072,China
    2.China Aerodynamics Research and Development Center,Mianyang 621000,China
  • Received:2023-09-18 Revised:2023-09-28 Accepted:2023-11-03 Online:2024-03-25 Published:2023-11-16
  • Contact: Shusheng CHEN E-mail:sshengchen@nwpu.edu.cn
  • Supported by:
    Young Elite Scientists Sponsorship Program by CAST(2022QNRC001);National Natural Science Foundation of China(92371109);Project of State Key Laboratory of Aerodynamics(SKLA-2022-KFKT-005)

Abstract:

Morphing aircraft, capable of real-time shape deformation according to task requirements and flight conditions to achieve optimal flight performance, has emerged as a significant direction for the future development of aircraft. This paper reviews the research status of deformation modes and key technologies of aerodynamic layout design for morphing aircraft. Firstly, the development of morphing aircraft can be divided into two stages by the progression of time: the mechanical deformation stage and the flexible and muti-dimensional deformation stage. Then, this article summarizes morphing solutions for different parts of the aircraft, namely, the head deformation, wing deformation, power plant deformation, and combined deformation. It particularly explores the developmental history of various wing morphing schemes, discusses their applications in different aerodynamic configurations including variable sweep wing, variable forward sweep wing, folding wing, telescopic wing, oblique wing, continuous variable curvature wing, and analyzes their aerodynamic and stability characteristics, respectively. Next, the implementation objectives of morphing aircraft are summarized and divided into three types: single domain optimal variable configuration, multi-domain fusion variable configuration, and one vessel multi-energy variable configuration. Subsequently, compared with fixed shape aircraft, the key technical challenges in aerodynamic layout and overall coordination design, time-varying aerodynamic effect evaluation, aerodynamic layout scheme optimization, and multidisciplinary coupling design derived from the implementation of morphing aircraft are analyzed, with particular focus on the research progress and current status of dynamic aerodynamic calculation methods and aerodynamic optimization design technologies for morphing aircraft. Finally, the future research direction and development prospects of morphing technologies are envisioned. Targeting at the needs of wide velocity domain and large airspace flight, exploring new conceptual deformation methods that can improve the performance of multiple flight missions and establishing intelligent morphing design model and multidisciplinary strong coupling integrated design system will become important development trends.

Key words: morphing aircraft, deformation modes, morphing wing, optimization design, unsteady effect, multidisciplinary integration

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