Analysis of a tensegrity camber morphing airfoil

Abstract

This study presents a novel tensegrity camber morphing airfoil (TenCMA), which has the ability of the large and smooth camber morphing. The configuration of TenCMA is determined by the error bound method. The optimal configuration of TenCMA is obtained by comparing the aerodynamic characteristics of TenCMA and traditional airfoil. Based on the beam-tensegrity dynamics, the shape control law of TenCMA is presented to control the camber morphing, whereas the force in strings are the control variables. The optimal actuator selection method is derived by the positive spanning set to select the minimum number of actuators and give the optimal control energy of TenCMA. The results of shape control show that TenCMA can smoothly change the trailing edge with the optimal selected actuators and minimum control energy. Finally, we compared the aerodynamic characteristics of TenCMA and traditional airfoil with the same equivalent deflection angle. Results show that TenCMA can significantly improve the aerodynamic performance of the morphing airfoil.