Passive gust-alleviation devices are being windtunnel tested at the University of Manchester as part of the three-year, €594,000 ($778,000) European smart aircraft morphing technologies (SMorph) project.
SMorph is funded through the European Science Foundation's (ESF) smart structural systems technologies (S3T) programme and will investigate novel aero-elastic concepts for shape-changing wings.
It will develop modelling methodologies to provide a better predictive capability, along with advancing morphing design and optimisation techniques.
The ESF brings together European research institutions for collaborative research. Manchester is working with Lisbon's Instituto Superior Technico and Italy's Politechnico de Milano. Lisbon is examining advanced actuators, Milan the design methodologies and Manchester the adaptive stiffness devices.
"This is a follow-on from the European Union's active aeroelastic structures project that had 20 partners and finished in 2005. During that, we demonstrated some morphing concepts," says SMorph principal investigator Jonathan Cooper, head of Manchester's aerospace engineering group.
Manchester University's 90cm (35in) low-speed tunnel is being used to test the gust-alleviation devices. A remotely piloted vehicle that was developed and tested under a previous EU project will be used for proof-of-concept flight testing of the proposed morphing strategies.
SMorph is investigating novel aeroelastic concepts for morphing wings |
Source: Flight International
