Effect of leading-edge and trailing-edge camber morphing on gust load for an elastic wing

This paper investigates the influence of the spanwise-distributed trailing-edge camber morphing on the dynamic stall characteristics of a finite-span wing at Re = 2 × 10⁵. The mathematical model of the spanwise-distributed trailing-edge camber morphing is established based on Chebyshev polynomials, and the deformed wing surface is modeled by a spline surface according to the rib’s morphing in the chordwise direction. The Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) method is adopted to obtain flow-field results and aerodynamic forces. The SST-γ model is introduced and the overset mesh technique is adopted. The numerical results show that the spanwise-distributed trailing-edge morphing obviously changes the aerodynamic and energy transfer characteristics of the dynamic stall. Especially when the phase difference between the trailing-edge motion and the wing pitch is −π/2, the interaction between the three-dimensional (3-D) Leading-Edge Vortex (LEV) and Trailing-Edge Vortex (TEV) is strengthened, and the work done by the aerodynamic force turns negative. This indicates that the trailing-edge deformation has the potential to suppress the oscillation amplitude of stall flutter. We also found that as the trailing-edge camber morphing varies more complexly along the spanwise direction, the suppression effect decreases accordingly.