Effects of morphing wings on aerodynamics performance and energy efficiency improvement for ground effect vehicles

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According to research, the depletion of fossil fuel is inevitable in the near future. In the aviation industry, about 3% of the total worldwide fossil fuel is used for fuel consumption. This has driven the search for new technologies. Aircrafts produce less CO2 and use less fuel by improving engines, enhancing aerodynamics and using lighter materials. This project will focus on morphing solutions to enhance the aerodynamics performance of ground effect vehicles, in order to reduce fuel consumption.For years, birds have been inspiring human to flight. More recently they have inspired a desire to enable an airplane's wings to morph/change shape. Using morphing technologies to flying vehicles can result in an improved performance, drag reduction, energy efficiency, and ultimately reduce fuel cost. Improvement of the performance parameters can be achieved by changing the aircraft shape, especially the wing planform and airfoil shapes. In the transitional phase when an aircraft is morphing from one state to another, its aerodynamics and aero-elastic behaviour will change significantly. These changes will have an impact on the performance of the aircraft, and its stability. Thus, it will not possible to evaluate the benefits of morphing technologies on performance and energy consumption without understanding their impact on the aircraft.Amphibious Wing-in-Ground (WIG) vehicle is considered to be a promising form of future transport, due to its high speed and low fuel consumption. Combining WIG vehicles with morphing technology will lead to a more efficient way of transport. The aim of this project is to obtain a comprehensive data of the aerodynamics behaviour of the morphing wing in ground effect vehicles on flight performance enhancement to expand its flight envelope and reduce fuel consumption, and to gain a detailed understanding of its aero-elastic/dynamics behaviour through high fidelity numerical simulations, and wind tunnel tests.