Equivalent dynamic modeling of flexible morphing aircraft.

Area of Science:

• Aerospace Engineering
• Mechanical Engineering
• Computational Dynamics

Background:

• Morphing aircraft offer adaptive flight capabilities but face complex dynamics due to large deformations and rapid module motion.
• Existing models struggle with the high computational demands of accurately simulating these complex morphing dynamics.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a mechanistic equivalent dynamic model for morphing aircraft that balances accuracy with computational efficiency.
• To optimize the morphing process for improved flight performance and stability.

Main Methods:

• Constructed an equivalent dynamic model considering rigid body and gimbal joint couplings for large deformation and fast motion.
• Utilized particle swarm optimization to identify model parameters using flexible model sample data.
• Validated the model by comparing simulation results against rigid and flexible models.

Main Results:

• The proposed equivalent model achieves accuracy comparable to the flexible model.
• The computational load of the new model is reduced to only 10% of the flexible model.
• An optimized morphing process reduced attitude variation by 4.23%.

Conclusions:

• The developed mechanistic equivalent model provides a high-fidelity, computationally efficient simulation tool for morphing aircraft.
• This model facilitates the optimization of morphing strategies, leading to enhanced flight stability and performance.