Innovative Structural Design;

Morphing Aircraft

Dr Iman Dayyani

December 2018

www.cranfield.ac.uk
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 1- Introduction
Aerospace Future; Importance and Challenges

Future Aircraft
Toxic emissions
Energy Performance &
Must be Reduced Must be Increased
Noise Maneuverability
Weight

The only way of achieving these objectives is through better engines, more aerodynamically efficient wings, and
lighter structures. However, the problem with the design of current aircraft wings is that they cannot be
optimized for every single point of the flight envelope, for example take off, cruise and landing.

Traditional aircraft (Structures, configurations, systems, …) are Suboptimal

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 1- Introduction
Aerospace Future; Importance and Challenges

Hence, a new generation of aircraft known as morphing aircraft are needed for further improvement
of the aircraft performance without unacceptable penalties in terms of cost, complexity and weight.

Hybrid Aircraft: To use batteries as loadbearing

Multifunctional Materials and structures are needed structural elements
Morphing Materials and structures are needed Morphing Aircraft: to adapt the shape in flight so as
to be always in the optimal configuration.

This is in light of active evolution of smart-structures technology, which in recent years has attracted significant
interest from leading global aerospace institutional investors. The multidisciplinary and multifunctional nature of
these structures have caused a non-trivial impact on control vibrations, noise, shape morphing and structural
integrity. Their diverse applications range from space systems to aircraft structures, wind turbines and medical
systems. Hence smart structures have a great potential to be the next breakthrough and major technological
advancement in aerospace research.
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Presentation to the School of Aerospace Engineering, University of Cranfield, 16 October 2015

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 1- Introduction
Morphing Aircraft

Morphing structures as a biologically inspired design have an

intelligent ability of optimizing their shape in operation using
distributed sensors and actuators.

In nature, this adaptive ability has been observed in many species;

for example birds which mould the shape of their body and change
the configuration of their wings in a complex way to adapt
themselves to the current flight phase. The radical continuous
aerodynamic shape change attained by morphing technology
enhances the flow control effectiveness locally and offers
significant improvements in aircraft performance globally.

Presentation to the School of Aerospace Engineering, University of Cranfield, 16 October 2015

4
 1- Introduction
Morphing Aircraft

However the requirements for morphing structures are conflicting;

the structure must be stiff to withstand the external loads, but Morphing Challenges
flexible to enable shape changes.

The solution to this conflict is to design the structure to decouple the

two actions through components with extreme anisotropy and Flexible
integrated actuation, without a negative impact on the weight, for the
Shape
complexity and reliability of morphing systems . Changes
Stiff for
Aerodynamic
Forces

Presentation to the School of Aerospace Engineering, University of Cranfield, 16 October 2015

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 1- Introduction
Morphing Skins

Corrugation has long been seen as a simple and effective

means of forming lightweight structures with high anisotropic
behaviour, stability under buckling load and energy absorption
capability. This has been exploited in diverse industrial
applications and academic research.

In recent years, there have been numerous innovative

developments to corrugated structures, involving more
elaborate and ingenious corrugation geometries and
combination of corrugations with advanced materials. This
development has been largely led by the research interest in
morphing structures, which seek to exploit the extreme
anisotropy of a corrugated panel, using the flexible degrees of
freedom to allow a structure’s shape to change, whilst bearing
load in other degrees of freedom.

Presentation to the School of Aerospace Engineering, University of Cranfield, 16 October 2015

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 1- Introduction
Morphing Skins and Corrugated Structures

Dayyani, I., Shaw, A. D., Flores, E. S., & Friswell, M. I. (2015).

The mechanics of composite corrugated structures:
A review with applications in morphing aircraft.
Composite Structures, 133, 358-380.

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 1. Composite Corrugated Core

1.1 Corrugated Core Fabrication

The composite corrugated cores were manufactured using a

trapezoidal machined aluminium mould. By utilizing epoxy
resin, prepreg laminates of glass fiber plain woven cloth were
hand-laid by use of a heat gun to ease forming of the prepregs.
Using inverted trapezoidal aluminium mould and weights to
compress the stacked prepreg laminates the desired
thickness was obtained. Then, the vacuum bagging process
performed.

Next, the laminate was cured for 1 hr in 160°C under vacuum

pressure. Curing the corrugated laminates in trapezoidal panel
form with the approximately length and width of 350 mm and
400 mm. The panels were cut to test specimen size using a
diamond coated band saw.

Presentation to the School of Aerospace Engineering, University of Cranfield, 16 October 2015

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 1. Composite Corrugated Core

1.2 Corrugated Core Geometry

The length of composite corrugated core investigated in this

paper is 300 mm. The width of tensile and bending test
specimens is 25 mm and 100 mm, respectively. Moreover, the
thickness of tensile and bending test specimens is 1.08 mm and
0.84 mm, respectively.

Presentation to the School of Aerospace Engineering, University of Cranfield, 16 October 2015

9
 1. Composite Corrugated Core

1.3 Core Material Characterization

The corrugated core is made of three-plies of woven glass fibers with
epoxy resin. Some of the benefits of fiber glass are their relatively low
price, high tensile strength, high chemical resistance and good
insulating properties [14].
In terms of mechanical properties, composites with epoxy resin can
replace metal parts such as steel applied in aerospace and industrial
parts, even in some cases they act better than metal parts. High
adhesion, good resistance to fatigue and moisture penetration are
some of the exclusive mechanical properties of epoxy resin [15]. The
orientation of each plies were± 45° respect to corrugation direction.
For evaluating the mechanical properties of the composite material, a
total of five flat specimens were also manufactured with the
procedure described in section 2.1 but with the use of flat aluminium
plates and spacers. The specimens were end tabbed using 0/ 90 glass/
epoxy laminates and Araldite adhesive for the tensile testing. Just the
same, a total of three flat specimens with ± 45° material orientation
were also manufactured so as to determine the in plane shear
properties of the specimens.
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 1. Composite Corrugated Core

2 Experiments on Composite Corrugated Core

2.1 Tensile Test of Composite Corrugated Core

Using a SANTAM testing machine with a load cell of 2 KN, six
specimens of composite corrugated core were tested
experimentally in tension, transverse to their corrugations.
Corresponding to ASTM D3039 standard [16] as a basis for the
tensile standard testing, these tests were carried out under
displacement control at a rate of 2 mm/min for corrugated
core specimens.
During the test, delamination was detected by the sudden
sound mainly due to the deboning of layers. This phenomenon
may influence the main behavior of corrugated core in tension.
Optical microscopy was undertaken on delaminated regions of
unit cells of corrugated core. The samples were then
investigated using stereomicroscopy. The figure shows
microscopic images of delamination in trapezoidal corrugated
specimen region during tensile testing.
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 1. Composite Corrugated Core

2.2 Three-Point Bending Test

Using a SANTAM testing machine with a load cell of 500 N,

specimens of composite corrugated core were tested
experimentally by a three point bending test. ASTM C393[17] as a
bending standard test of sandwich structures was used to
determine the appropriate bending span and size of specimens.
Span and diameter of the supporter rollers were 208 mm and 30
mm, respectively.
The tests were under displacement control at a rate of 5
mm/min for corrugated core specimens. The figure illustrates
testing machine and the composite corrugated core during the
three point bending test. At least four specimens for corrugated
panel were tested. Then, the average of obtained results is
compared to results of finite element method and analytical
solution (Fig. 10(b) illustrates the average of obtained results
from experiments and finite element method).

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 2. Composite Corrugated Core Coated with Elastomer

The elastomer coatings were made of synthetic rubber, namely

polyurethane (PU). The PU threads were knitted by a circular interlock
weft method. In this type of knitting, one continuous thread runs
crosswise in the fabric making all of the loops in one course.
Consequently, the woven fabric has a smooth surface on both sides, as
well as fairly good shape retention and possesses good wearing qualities.
The skin was made from a chloroprene polymer designed for the use in
high-strength application and flexible adhesives. Two laminates of
elastomeric woven fabrics were pressed, adhered together and then cured
at room temperature.
The figure shows the elastomeric coating specimen in the tensile testing
machine. Next figure illustrates the stress–strain curves of six elastomer
specimens in the longitudinal and transverse directions, respectively. It
demonstrates one of the distinctive characteristics of elastomers, namely
their large elastic deformation capacity. The elastomeric specimens
stretched 1.5 and 3.3 times over their original lengths in the longitudinal
and transverse directions, respectively.

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 2. Composite Corrugated Core Coated with Elastomer

Experiments on coated composite corrugated core

• Tensile test of coated composite corrugated core

• Hysteresis test on coated composite corrugated

cores

• Three-point bending test of the coated composite

corrugated core

Finite element analysis

• Tensile test simulation

• Three-point bending test simulation

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 3. Analytical Equivalent Models, Homogenization and Super Element Techniques

The optimal design of these structures requires simple models of the panels that may be incorporated into multi-
disciplinary system models. Therefore equivalent structural models are required that retain the dependence on the
geometric parameters of the coated corrugated panels. Taking into account the geometric and mechanical
properties of the coated corrugated panel, an analytical homogenization model is investigated. The importance of
this work is that it provides a simple equivalent analytical model which uses the geometric and mechanical
properties of panel as variables that can be applied for further optimization studies. In this regard, two analytical
solutions to calculate the equivalent tensile and bending flexural properties of a coated composite corrugated core
in the longitudinal and transverse directions are presented. Then different experimental and numerical models are
investigated to verify the accuracy and efficiency of the presented equivalent model. The comparison studies
demonstrate the suitability of the proposed method for application in further complex design investigations.

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 4. Super Element Techniques

Considering the geometric and mechanical properties of the corrugated panel, a

generic super element of a corrugated core unit cell with elastomeric coating for
morphing structures is investigated in this paper. The super element captures the small
deformation of a 2D thin curved beam with variable curvature and is based on an exact
analytical equivalent model which avoids any homogenization assumption. The
stiffness matrix of a general curved beam element for a corrugated unit cell with
elastomeric coating is derived. Different geometries are investigated to verify the
𝑛
accuracy and efficiency of the presented super element. The super element uses the 𝑓 𝑥 = 10−2𝑛+1 ∗ 𝑥 ∗ 20 − 𝑥
geometric and mechanical properties of the panel as variables that may be applied for
further topology optimization studies. The parametric studies of different corrugation
shapes demonstrate the suitability of the proposed super element for application in
further detailed design investigations.

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 5. Camber Morphing Internal Structure + Corrugated Skin

This work presents the design of an elastomer coated composite corrugated skin for the camber morphing
airfoil. The good in-plane strain capability and highly anisotropic behaviour of composite corrugated panels
make them very effective in morphing wing applications. The behaviour of these corrugated skins must be
investigated comprehensively and optimized in terms of aero-elastic effects and the boundary conditions
arising from the internal wing structure. In this article, the geometric parameters of the coated composite
corrugated panels are optimized to minimize the in-plane stiffness and the weight of the skin and to
maximize the flexural out-of-plane stiffness of the corrugated skin. A finite element code for thin beam
elements is used with the aggregate Newton’s method to optimize the geometric parameters of the coated
corrugated panel. The advantages of the corrugated skin over the elastomer skin for the camber morphing
structure are discussed. Moreover, a finite element simulation of the internal structure with the corrugated
skin is performed under typical aerodynamic and structural loadings to check the design approach.

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 5. Camber Morphing Internal Structure + Corrugated Skin

Luc _ a  5mm 52% of the chord length Manufacturing limits Luc _ a  5mm
The number of corrugation unit cells:
The number of FishBAC stringers, 3≤ 𝑛𝑠 ≤ 15 1≤ 𝑁 ≤ 𝑁𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑙 lmorph  160mm
a1
a2
a3
Optimization Method Mass

Objectives
Parameters

h
Toolbox
Design

tc
4 Unit cells
te EAeq
Ec 26 elements
Ee Equivalent Modelling (FE) Ux EIeq
e Uy
c z

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 5. Camber Morphing Internal Structure + Corrugated Skin

EIeq

𝐸𝐴eq
Mass of
the skin

Multi-Objective optimization:
Aggregate Gradient Based Method & GA
Verifying Optimization Method with GA
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 Trend of optimized objectives in best compromise points

Trend of optimized parameters in best compromise points

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 5. Camber Morphing Internal Structure + Corrugated Skin

The discussion in this article has thus far considered the skin in isolation and presented the advantages
of the coated corrugated skin over the elastomer skin. The optimum design was obtained by identifying
the best compromise on the Pareto surface between the in-plane stiffness, the out-of-plane stiffness and
the mass of the skin.

In practice, the skin would be optimized simultaneously with the internal structure; based on the
environment, the airfoil would experience; and the optimum skin would be different if more importance is
given to certain objective functions such as the flexibility of the whole structure, which reduces the
required energy to morph and results in a lighter actuation system.

In practice, the shape of the morphing airfoil and the FishBAC geometry would be optimized to achieve
the highest possible lift-to-drag ratio. This would require an equivalent skin model to capture the actuator
force required to deform the skin and the additional mass of the skin. The predicted aerodynamic
pressure loads would allow the out-of-plane deformations of the skin to be estimated, and these
deformations would be constrained so that their effect on the aerodynamics, particularly drag, is
negligible. This step is not trivial and may require analysis of the fluid–structure interaction, particularly if
unsteady effects are considered.

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 5. Camber Morphing Internal Structure + Corrugated Skin
Other constraints may be added, based on manufacturing
requirements or structural integrity and fatigue, although these
are rarely considered in current morphing aircraft design. Thus,
some of the objectives may become constraints or additional
constraints may be added. For example, a constraint on EIeq is
obtained from the maximum out-of-plane deformation due to the
airflow or to prevent buckling due to the actuation of the internal
structure.
Buckling and Optimization
of Composite Corrugated
Skins

Air Speed = 30m/s

Pressure Distribution;
XFOIL, (Estimation)
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 6. References:

• Anna Ermakova, I. Dayyani, ‘’Shape Optimization of Composite Corrugated Morphing Skins’’, Composites
Part B: Engineering, 2016
• I. Dayyani and M.I. Friswell, ’’ Multi-Objective Optimization for the Geometry of Trapezoidal Corrugated
Morphing Skins’’, Structural and Multidisciplinary Optimization , 2016, DOI: 10.1007/s00158-016-1476-4
• I. Dayyani, A.D. Shaw, E.I. Saavedra Flores, M.I. Friswell, ‘’ The Mechanics of Composite Corrugated
Structures: A Review with Applications in Morphing Aircraft’’, Composite Structures, 2015, 133; 358–380
• H. Mohammadi, S. Ziaei-Rad, I. Dayyani, ‘’An Equivalent Model for Trapezoidal Corrugated Cores Based
on Homogenization Method’’, Journal of Composite Structures, 2015, 131:160–170.
• A.D. Shaw, I. Dayyani, M. I. Friswell., "Optimisation of composite corrugated skins for buckling in
morphing aircraft." Composite Structures, 2015, 119: 227-237
• BKS Woods, I. Dayyani , M.I. Friswell, ‘’Fluid-Structure Interaction Analysis of the Fish Bone Active
Camber Concept.’’ Journal of Aircraft, 52(1), 2015, 307-319.
• I. Dayyani, M.I. Friswell, E. I. Saavedra Flores,’’ A General Super Element for a Curved Beam’’,
International journal of Solids and Structures, 2014, 51; 2931–2939
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 6. References:

• I. Dayyani, S. Ziaei-Rad, M. I. Friswell, "The mechanical behavior of composite corrugated core coated with
elastomer for morphing skins", Journal of Composite Materials, 2014, Vol. 48, No. 13, pp. 1623-1636
• I. Dayyani, H.H. Khodaparast, B.K.S. Woods, M.I. Friswell,’’The design of a coated composite corrugated skin
for the camber morphing airfoil’’, Journal of Intelligent Materials Systems and Structures, 2014, DOI:
10.1177/1045389X14544151
• S. Barbarino , E.I. Saavedra Flores, R.M. Ajaj, I. Dayyani , M.I. Friswell, ’’A review on shape memory alloys
with applications to morphing Aircraft’’, Smart Materials and Structures, 2014, 23.6: 063001
• I. Dayyani, M.I. Friswell, S. Ziaei-Rad, et al., ‘’Equivalent Models of Composite Corrugated Cores with
Elastomeric Coatings for Morphing Structures’’, Journal of Composite structures, 2013, 104; 281–292

• I. Dayyani, S. Ziaei-Rad, H. Salehi, "Numerical and Experimental Investigations on Mechanical Behavior of

Composite Corrugated Core", Journal of Applied Composite Materials, 2012, 19; 705-721

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