Keywords

morphing wings, tiltrotor, aeroelasticity, whirl flutter, modal testing, experimental characterization

Subject Categories

Aerodynamics and Fluid Mechanics | Aerospace Engineering | Mechanical Engineering

Abstract

Tiltrotor rotorcraft configurations combine the capabilities of vertical and forward flight, offering a crucial and advantageous design for maximizing the operational flight envelope. This versatility enables broad adaptability across numerous designs and platforms, including unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), micro-air vehicles (MAVs), and vertical take-off and landing (VTOLs) aircraft. However, propeller-based aircraft are susceptible to an aeroelastic instability at high flight speeds known as whirl flutter. This instability phenomena is a crucial research task and problem to investigate, as with advances in manufacturing and vehicle designs, these can yield new rotorcraft formats capable of advancing the flight envelopes at higher cruise speeds. Current vehicles employ conventional control methods, as well as shorter and stiffer wings in order to provide a stabilizing configuration. Overall, these design choices might not result in the most aerodynamically efficient design. This research work studies a non-intrusive tiltrotor design using active morphing wings through control rods. A geometrically scaled pylon based on the NASA's XV-15 design is adapted to a morphing wing manufactured from a flexible composite material. Standard UAV electronic equipment serves as the propulsion method and a baseline for UAV and MAV designs. The current research presents a component-level characterization, which includes a motor thrust characterization, component manufacturing, and ground vibration tests. The propulsion characterization is analyzed with manufacturer data and computational fluid dynamics. Ground vibration testing is performed in order to do a parametric study of mode shapes with their respective frequencies, damping ratios, and focus on the structural mechanics without the aerodynamic influence of the rotation of the propeller and the EFML-UCF wind tunnel freestream condition. The final ground vibration test is conducted on a manufactured aeroelastic testbed, establishing the experimental foundation for future wind tunnel experimentation.

Completion Date

2026

Semester

Summer

Committee Chair

Bhattacharya, Samik

Degree

Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering (M.S.A.E.)

College

College of Engineering and Computer Science

Department

Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Format

PDF

Document Type

Thesis

Language

English

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