Use of MDO Techniques for the Design of Morphing Aircraft

This paper describes the application of multidisciplinary optimization techniques to the design of adaptive morphing wings based on compliant structures. The investigated morphing concept is the active camber variation limited to the leading and the trailing edges of the wing, keeping the central wingbox undeformed. The developed optimization framework consists of different steps. Starting from the mission requirements, typically the aircraft efficiency improvement in one or more flight conditions, the first step aims at the design of the optimal morphing aerodynamic shape of the wing enabling the desired performances, also taking into account structural and material limitations for the skin. Then, dedicated tools are applied, at increasing detail level, to design the internal structure that realizes the requested morphing shape change. The proposed procedure has been applied over the years in different research projects. Among the others, the results for the NOVEMOR project and the Clean Sky 2 AIRGREEN project are reported, showing the suitability of the developed framework for the design of optimum solutions in the morphing field.