Numerical study and physical analysis of trailing edge electroactive morphing on an A320 type morphing wing in the transonic regime including wobulation effects

A detailed parametric study to detect optimal frequency ranges for the vibration and slight deformation of the near-trailing edge region of a morphing Airbus A320 wing has been carried out at high Reynolds number. The trailing edge of the profile is actuated by piezoactuators as in [1], whose motion has been modelled numerically using the Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) method in the CFD solver NSMB (Navier-Stokes Multi Block). The present work is a continuation of the numerical studies performed under the H2020 N° 723402 EU project SMS: “Smart Morphing and Sensing for aeronautical configurations” , www.smartwing.org/SMS/EU framework as well as in the context of the H2020 project “TEAMAERO”, «Towards Effective Flow Control and Mitigation of Shock Effects in Aeronautical Applications», https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/860909/fr. The present study analysed the morphing effects on the transonic buffet at cruise Mach number of 0.78 and incidence of 1.8°. Under these conditions, it has been shown that the buffet frequency can be controlled by the morphing actuation frequency by enhancing a “lock-in” effect. The present morphing approach has proven able to manipulate the near trailing edge and wake’s coherent vortices and to create significant feedback effects towards the Shock-Wave Boundary Layer Interaction (SWBLI) region and even upstream of the SWBLI. The present Hi-Fi simulations have analysed the interaction between the shock-wave dynamics, wake dynamics and trailing edge actuations and studied the effects of the two main morphing parameters: actuation frequency and flapping amplitude. Furthermore, the effect of varying the actuation frequency linearly versus time (wobulation) have been quantified. It was found that a specific range of trailing edge actuations can effectively control the shock-wave’s position and reduce the amplitude of its oscillation, leading to an increase of lift-to-drag ratio. Therefore, this study has shown that this kind of morphing can be considered as a promising approach in the cruise phase of flight