Geometrically nonlinear static aeroelastic analysis of composite morphing wing with corrugated structures

In this paper, an integrated geometrically nonlinear aeroelastic framework to analyze the static nonlinear aeroelastic response of morphing composite wing with orthotropic materials has been developed. A flat plate/shell finite element, which can model plate-like wings, has been accommodated to model composite/corrugated panels to investigate effects of different laminate orientations and corrugations. A corotational approach is used to consider the geometrical nonlinearity due to large deformation produced by wing morphing. An unsteady vortex-lattice method is implemented to couple with the structural model subject to the large deformations. A homogenization method is also implemented to model corrugated panels as equivalent orthotropic plates. Individual structural, aerodynamic, and corrugated panel models, as well as the complete nonlinear aeroelastic framework, are verified. Numerical studies explore the static aeroelastic responses of a flat wing with composite/corrugated panels. This work helps to understand the nonlinear aeroelastic characteristics of composite/corrugated wings and demonstrates the capability of the framework to analyze the nonlinear aeroelasticity of such morphing wings. (C) 2019 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.