Paneled Morphing Skins for A Full Shape Adaptive System

完整的形状自适应系统(如变形机翼)应包含由变形蒙皮覆盖的变形结构。在我最近的DG研究中，已经开发了一种设计变形结构的方法。在这项拟议的DG研究中，目标是开发一种变形皮肤，它必须满足运动要求，与变形结构一起变形，同时又能承受表面载荷。这个项目的目标是带头研究一种新的面板变形皮肤，这种面板由分段的面板组成，灵感来自鱼鳞。这项研究计划是在三个支柱下提出的，以调查三种类型的新型壁板蒙皮，并开发相关的设计和分析方法。第一个支柱是设计、建模和分析滑动面板蒙皮，它被设计为一组通过伸缩联锁系统连接的松散连接的小面板，使它们能够相对移动。此外，智能材料，如形状记忆聚合物(SMP)，被用来连接这些面板。将变形结构作为驱动系统，变形蒙皮作为驱动系统，提出了一种新的蒙皮系统建模方法。关键是要提供一个合适的约束模型，能够真实地表示相邻面板之间的连接。由于板的数目越多，计算的复杂性越大，因此将开发一种有效的数值方法来求解板的运动。第二个支柱是对多稳定面板变形蒙皮进行设计、建模和分析。通过特殊处理，金属/复合材料将表现出双稳态构型，这种构型已被用于形状变形，但集中在单个贴片上。我们的研究是开发一种多贴片系统，以形成具有多稳定构型的变形皮肤。与第一个立柱设计不同的是，这个立柱设计将所有的补丁紧密连接在一起。虽然每个面片都有两个确定的稳定主轴，但它们在连接后的表现会不同。关键是如何对相邻块之间的边界条件进行建模，并对整体皮肤形状进行预测。第三个支柱是对连续体板变形蒙皮进行设计、建模和分析。目前，已经通过利用细长的杆来形成例如蛇机器人来研究连续体机器人。我们的研究是使用可以变形的大型薄板和柔性板来满足形状变形的要求。虽然这种立柱设计在实际使用中可能是三种立柱中最好的，但它也有一些局限性。关键是要对整个静态不确定且带有刚性运动的蒙皮系统进行建模。在本计划的最后，将总结所有三种设计的利弊，这些利弊可用于指导不同应用的面板变形皮肤设计。拟议的研究计划将有助于培养这一新兴领域的一批研究生，并加强与加拿大航空航天制造业的合作。

A full shape adaptive system, such as morphing wings, should contain a morphing structure covered by a morphing skin. In my last DG research, a methodology for designing a morphing structure has been developed. In this proposed DG research, the goal is to develop a morphing skin that must fulfill motion requirement by morphing it along with a morphing structure yet withstand a surface load. The objective of this program is to spearhead a research into a new panel morphing skin that is made of segmented panels, inspired by fish scales. This research program is proposed under three pillars to investigate three types of new panel skins and develop associated design and analysis methodologies. The first pillar is to design, model and analyze a sliding panel skin that is devised as a set of small panels through loose connections joined by a telescopic interlock system allowing them to move relative to each other. Further, smart materials, such as shape memory polymer (SMP), are used to join these panels. A new method will be developed to model this skin system considering a morphing structure as a driving system and a morphing skin as a driven system. The key is to provide a proper constraint model that can truly represent the connections among adjacent panels. An effective numerical method will be developed to solve the panel motions because the computational complexity increases as the number of panels increase. The second pillar is to design, model and analyze a multi-stable panel morphing skin. Through special treatment metallic/composite materials would exhibit bi-stable configurations, which have been used for shape morphing but focusing on a single patch. Our research is to develop a multiple-patch system to form a morphing skin with multi-stable configurations. Different from the first pillar design, this pillar design has all the patches closely connected. Though each patch has two definite stable principal axes, they will behave differently after connection. The key is how to model the boundary conditions among adjacent patches and predict the overall skin shape. The third pillar is to design, model and analyze a continuum panel morphing skin. Currently continuum robots have been researched by utilizing long and slender rods to form for example a snake robot. Our research is to use large, thin and flexible panels that can be deformed to fulfill shape morphing requirement. Though this pillar design may be the best among the three for practical use, it has some limitations. The key is to model the entire skin system that is statically indeterminate and coupled with rigid motion. At the end of this program, all three designs will be summarized in terms of pros and cons that can be used to guide panel morphing skin designs for different applications. The proposed research program will help train a number of graduate students in this emerging area and strengthen collaborations with the Canadian aerospace manufacturing industry.