Design and Manufacturing of Composite Chiral Structures with Morphing Capabilities

The paper investigates the response of complex cellular structures made of composite materials that can be exploited for morphing purpose and presents a technique for the manufacturing of such type of structures. The configuration under investigation consists of a chiral truss-core airfoil, whose chord-wise compliance can be exploited for morphing purposes. Numerical results are presented to demonstrate the morphing performance of a composite chiral core airfoil, and to motivate the set up of an efficient manufacturing process. The developed manufacturing approach allows the assembly of complex structural configurations by bonding of composite elements. The manufactured chiral cells have been tested to prove their capability to undergo large displacement without experiencing failure and detailed numerical model are assessed to predict the non-linear response and the strength of such type of structures.