An experimental remotely piloted aircraft named X-HALE was designed and built at the University of Michigan to collect experimental data for the flight dynamics of vehicles with very flexible wings. Similar aircraft with a wing span of 4 and 6  m were later developed and built at the Aeronautics Institute of Technology, Brazil, to study the flight dynamics and control of highly flexible aircraft. In the present Paper, the steady structural response of the wing of the X-HALE is investigated by the finite element method assuming 1) linear behavior (small displacement, small strain analysis) and 2) nonlinear behavior (large displacement, small strain analysis). This Paper aims to investigate the influence of geometric nonlinearities in the numerical prediction of load distribution and displacements along the wing span when compared with linear analyses results. For this purpose, four versions of the X-HALE with different structural layouts are presented. Two aircraft have a 4 m wing span constructed with fiberglass and aluminum, respectively. The other two have a wing span of 6 m and were also constructed with fiberglass and aluminum. Internal force redistributions were observed in the nonlinear structural analyses. The redistribution of these forces caused the twist angle to increase and the bending angle to decrease compared to the linear analyses when under the same loading conditions.


    Access

    Check access

    Check availability in my library

    Order at Subito €


    Export, share and cite



    Title :

    Effects of Geometric Nonlinearity on Flexible Wing Structures


    Contributors:

    Published in:

    Journal of Aircraft ; 58 , 1 ; 85-97


    Publication date :

    2021-01-01




    Type of media :

    Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English





    Joined-Wing Aeroelastic Design with Geometric Nonlinearity

    Maxwell Blair / Robert Canfield / Ronald Roberts | AIAA | 2005


    Identification of Nonlinearity Sources in a Flexible Wing

    Dessena, Gabriele / Pontillo, Alessandro / Ignatyev, Dmitry I. et al. | ASCE | 2025


    Aerodynamic Nonlinearity Effects on Flight Dynamics of a Very Flexible Flying Wing

    dos Santos, Luiz G. P. / Cesnik, Carlos E. S. / Marques, Flávio D. | AIAA | 2025


    Nonstationary Random Vibration Analysis of Wing with Geometric Nonlinearity Under Correlated Excitation

    Li, Yanbin / Mulani, Sameer B. / Kapania, Rakesh K. et al. | AIAA | 2018