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

根据研究，化石燃料的枯竭在不久的将来是不可避免的。在航空工业中，全球约3%的化石燃料用于燃料消耗。这推动了对新技术的探索。通过改进发动机、增强空气动力学和使用更轻的材料，飞机产生更少的二氧化碳，使用更少的燃料。该项目将专注于变形解决方案，以提高地效车辆的空气动力学性能，以减少燃料消耗。多年来，鸟类一直激励着人类飞翔。最近，它们激发了人们对飞机机翼变形/改变形状的渴望。在飞行器上使用变形技术可以提高性能，减少阻力，提高能源效率，并最终降低燃料成本。性能参数的改善可以通过改变飞机的形状，特别是机翼平台和翼型形状来实现。在飞机从一种状态转变为另一种状态的过渡阶段，飞机的空气动力学和空气弹性性能将发生重大变化。这些变化将对飞机的性能和稳定性产生影响。因此，如果不了解变形技术对飞机的影响，就不可能评估变形技术对性能和能耗的好处。两栖地面翼（WIG）车辆由于其高速度和低燃料消耗被认为是一种有前途的未来运输形式。将WIG车辆与变形技术相结合将产生更高效的运输方式。本项目旨在通过高保真数值模拟和风洞试验，获得地效飞行器中变形机翼在提高飞行性能、扩大飞行包线和降低油耗方面的空气动力学性能的综合数据，并详细了解其空气弹性/动力学性能。

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.