Integrated Design of a Morphing Winglet for Active Load Control and Alleviation of Turboprop Regional Aircraft

Aircraft winglets are well-established devices that improve aircraft fuel efficiency by enabling a higher lift over drag ratios and lower induced drag. Retrofitting to existing also increases payload/range the same order of burn savings, although additional loads moments imparted wing may impact structural interfaces, adding more weight wing. Winglet installation on influences numerous design parameters requires proper balance between aerodynamics efficiency. Advanced dynamic aeroelastic analyses wing/winglet structure crucial for this assessment. Within scope Clean Sky 2 REG IADP Airgreen project, targeting novel technologies next-generation regional aircraft, paper deals with integrated full-scale morphing winglet purpose improving aerodynamic in off-design flight conditions, lowering wing-bending due maneuvers increasing stability through technology. A fault-tolerant architecture, based two independent asynchronous control surfaces variable camber differential settings, is presented. The system designed face different situations action movable tabs. potential reducing means numerically assessed, along expected performance actuation systems’ integration surface geometry. Such device was CIRA installation, whereas benefits were estimated ONERA natural laminar flow An active load controller developed PoliMI UniNA performed trade-offs flutter calculations coupling harmonics bending torsion.