Modelling and aerodynamic prediction of fish bone active camber morphing airfoil

The concept of morphing wings has been thought to be a revolutionary approach to improve the field and cruise performance of aircrafts. Fish Bone Active camber morphing Airfoil
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(FishBAC) concept has been a promising alternative design architecture to fulfill this desire. This paper focuses on the configuration modelling and aerodynamic prediction of FishBAC concept. The former linear structural model based on Euler-Bernoulli beam theory has been parameterized and a nonlinear structural model has been developed in this study. The difference in geometric configurations and aerodynamic prediction caused by the structural non-linear effects has been evaluated. With special attention paid to the effects of structural nonlinearity on aerodynamic prediction, the aerodynamic advantages compared with flip and designability of this new concept has be reanalyzed through different deformation cases. It is found that effects of structural nonlinearity makes the aerodynamic performance of FishBAC concept overestimated. Designing the distribution of sectional bending rigidity, the aerodynamic performance of this concept can be specified to different requirements.