Deformation analysis of shape memory polymer for morphing wing skin under airflow

The method for analyzing the out-of-plane deformation of a flexible skin under airflow is developed in this paper. The aerodynamic analysis is performed using the CFD software, and the structural analysis is performed using finite element method. The chief aim of the present study is to investigate the out-of-plane deformation of the shape memory polymer (SMP) skin at different temperatures. Numerical results show that the maximum out-of-plane displacement of the SMP skin increases with increasing temperature. When the SMP skin is heated to 53°C, the maximum out-of-plane displacement is about 7 mm. It decreases by 72%, when the SMP skin is applied with a uniform pre-strain of 0.1.