Aeroelastic Analysis of Actuated Adaptive Wingtips Based on Pressure Actuation

Folding wingtips address the challenges posed by high-aspect-ratio wings, such as airport conformity and increased wing root bending moment. Actuated adaptive wingtips extend the functionalities of folding wingtips by using a stiffness-adaptive aeroelastic hinge that is actively adjustable in flight. The objective of this paper is the aeroelastic analysis of a wing equipped with an adaptive-stiffness hinge. While the structural design of the wingtip actuator based on pressure-actuated cellular structures (PACS) was developed in a previous study, in this study the authors verify the concept of actuated adaptive wingtips through aeroelastic analysis. This study shows that the investigated PACS actuator, structurally designed from glass-fiber-reinforced plastic, is capable of bearing the loads acting on the wingtips of a Cessna Citation X. The adaptive-stiffness hinge, positioned between 86.7 and 91.2% of the semispan, reduces the wing root bending moment by up to 7.8% in a 2.5g maneuver load case, while keeping the wing straight in cruise. A further increase in load alleviation potential can be achieved in the future by extending the actuator’s operating envelope and thus increasing its load-bearing capacity. The functional verification of the actuated adaptive wingtip concept by means of aeroelastic analysis forms the basis for the manufacturing and testing of a functional prototype.