Citation :

Anmar H. Ali, Basim A. R. Al-Bakri, "Investigation of the Aerodynamic Characteristics of a Morphing Airfoil for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles," International Journal of Mechanical Engineering, vol. 13, no. 7, pp. 174-187, 2026. Crossref, https://doi.org/10.14445/23488360/IJME-V13I7P115

Abstract

An effective method for improving the aerodynamic efficiency of flight is the use of morphing technology. This technique is currently used in many applications for controlling existing UAVs. A new proposal of NACA 2415 airfoil internal structure was capable of changing the camber line with Rectangular Corrugated Variable Camber (RCVC), which was used and analyzed aerodynamically by evaluating the pressure, lift, drag, and lift-to-drag coefficients. The curvature geometry of the airfoil was represented by a simple recurved system mathematical model and programmed using MATLAB. The airfoil was 3D printed using PLA material and compared with the recurved system model for matching with good accuracy at positive and negative deflection angles. The numerical solution by Xflr5 version 6 software (viscous-inviscid method) and by a computational fluid dynamics solution using the EasyCFD program were used to calculate the aerodynamic performance of the airfoil. The Reynolds number (Re) is 0.688 x 10⁶, while angles ranging from 0 ° to 20 ° were used as flap angles and also angles of attack for morphing, flapped airfoil, and the normal one, respectively. The results were compared between the morphed airfoil and the conventional deflected flap airfoil, where the flap chord is 40% of the airfoil's length, has been evaluated. The lift and drag coefficients, lift-to-drag ratio, and pressure distribution on the airfoil surfaces were discussed and compared with published experiments. The results show that the morphing airfoil, with an increasing aerodynamic efficiency to 28%.

Keywords

Variable Camber Airfoil, Aerodynamic Characteristics, Corrugated Airfoil Structure, Adaptive Airfoil.

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