Large-Displacement Wing Droop Nose Design

Abstract

The following paper presents an overview of the work done on the morphing wing leading edge droop nose device in the second funding period of the Sonderforschungsbereich 880 project (SFB880). The device is composed of a hybrid composite skin including prepreg and elastomeric layers and conventional kinematic and compliant options for the internal mechanism. Prior manufacturing and experimental work showed the suitability of the skin concept and several optimization tools were developed and used to determine the best thickness distributions and internal mechanism architecture. Development of these optimization tools are ongoing and have been extended into 3D design. Industrial considerations such as possible solutions for system integration of lightning strike protection, an abrasion layer and a de-icing system have also been proposed and experimentally tested. A cyclic electrical de-icing system, which uses the given structure as resistive heating, is proposed and a demonstrator as proof of concept is built and experimentally investigated. Experimental tests are regularly performed and the data embedded in the optimization tools as the material development of the skin continues in order to characterize the multifunctional material behaviour appropriately in the numerical models.