Structural Design of an Adaptive Wing Trailing Edge for Enhanced Cruise Performance

Aircraft wings are usually optimized for a specific design point. However, since they operate in a wide variety of flight regimes, some of these have conflicting impacts on aircraft design process, as a single configuration may be efficient in one instance but perform poorly in others. In principle, stiff, hardly deformable aircraft structures preclude any adaptation to changing conditions. Alternatively, morphing wings could provide adaptive capabilities to maximize aircraft performance in any flight operation. Inside SARISTU, specific research activities were carried out on the technological development of an Adaptive Trailing Edge Device (ATED) implementing airfoil camber morphing for the maximization of the wing aerodynamic performance during cruise, with the ultimate goal to reduce fuel consumption. Wing shape is changed to compensate weight losses following fuel burning, to keep L/D ratio (or simply drag, D) to its optimal value. ATED camber adaptations are predicted to lead to significant benefits in fuel consumption, estimated from 3 to 5%, depending on a number of initial and boundary conditions. This paper is focused on the design process adopted for the definition and verification of ATED primary structure; fast and reliable elementary methods combined with rational design criteria and advanced FE analyses were adopted to assess the architectural concept and the embedded actuation mechanisms. Structural design was carried out in compliance with the very demanding requirements posed by the implementation of the device on large Aeroplanes (EASA CS25 category).