Computational aerodynamic analysis on perimeter reinforced (PR)-compliant wing

Implementing the morphing technique on a micro air vehicle (MAV) wing is a very challenging task, due to the MAV’s wing size limitation and the complex morphing mechanism. As a result, understanding aerodynamic characteristics and flow configurations, subject to wing structure deformation of a morphing wing MAV has remained obstructed. Thus, this paper presents the investigation of structural deformation, aerodynamics performance and flow formation on a proposed twist morphing MAV wing design named perimeter reinforced (PR)-compliant wing. The numerical simulation of two-way fluid structure interaction (FSI) investigation consist of a quasi-static aeroelastic structural analysis coupled with 3D incompressible Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes and shear-stress-transport (RANS–SST) solver utilized throughout this study. Verification of numerical method on a rigid rectangular wing achieves a good correlation with available experimental results. A comparative aeroelastic study between PR-compliant to PR and rigid wing performance is organized to elucidate the morphing wing performances. Structural deformation results show that PR-compliant wing is able to alter the wing’s geometric twist characteristic, which has directly influenced both the overall aerodynamic performance and flow structure behavior. Despite the superior lift performance result, PR-compliant wing also suffers from massive drag penalty, which has consequently affected the wing efficiency in general. Based on vortices investigation, the results reveal the connection between these aerodynamic performances with vortices formation on PR-compliant wing.