Aerodynamic Benefits of Flexible Morphing Airfoil for SUAV

This work is conducted to study the aerodynamic benefits of the flexible morphing airfoil for small unmanned aerial vehicles. The flexible airfoil is divided along its chord and modelled as two cantilever beams. Fluid-structure simulation is conducted to morph the camber of the flexible airfoil and to generate the morphed airfoil geometries. Seven morphed airfoils of varying camber are generated and numerically tested in the operating Reynolds number of small unmanned aerial vehicles. Under the assumption of steady level flight, suitable morphed airfoils are selected and are found to show 1.74%-14.90% drop in the drag coefficient for the same lift coefficients.