Energies (Apr 2024)

Aerodynamic Analysis of Variable Camber-Morphing Airfoils with Substantial Camber Deflections

  • Marta Marciniuk,
  • Paweł Piskur,
  • Łukasz Kiszkowiak,
  • Łukasz Malicki,
  • Krzysztof Sibilski,
  • Katarzyna Strzelecka,
  • Stanisław Kachel,
  • Zygmunt Kitowski

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/en17081801
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 17, no. 8
p. 1801

Abstract

Read online

In recent years, morphing wings have become not only a concept, but an aerodynamic solution for the aviation industry to take a step forward toward future technologies. However, continuously morphing airfoils became an interesting answer to provide green energy solutions. In this paper, the authors conducted experimental research on a continuously camber-morphing airfoil using the Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) methods. The main objective of this work was to research a variety of morphing airfoils with different camber deflections. An average velocity distribution and turbulence distribution were compared and are discussed. The two-dimensional PIV results were compared to the CFD simulations to validate the numerical method’s accuracy and obtain the aerodynamic coefficient’s trends. A further comparison revealed that morphing airfoils have better aerodynamic performance than conventional airfoils for very low camber deflections and create substantial amounts of drag for significant camber deflections.

Keywords