Tag: smart materials

The Future of Flight: Morphing Wings

morphing-wingsSince the Wright Brothers developed the world’s first airplane, scientists and aerospace engineers have understood how important airflaps and wing design are to ensuring that a plane is able to achieve lift and land safely. During and after World War II, additional lessons were learned, where the sweep of a wing was found to be central to a plane achieving higher service ceilings and air speed velocities.

Since that time, many notable improvements have been made, but some strictures have remained the same. For example, conventional wings suffer from the problem of being fixed in a single position, which makes some aspects of performance possible but other things extremely difficult. In addition, flaps have remained virtually unchanged over the years, relying on hinged joints that are limited and vulnerable.

flexfoilIn both cases, the answer may lie in flexible and seamless materials, leading to wings that can change shape as needed. Such technology could not only enable better performance, but remove the need for hinges and gears. Towards this end, Michigan-based FlexSys has developed a way to optimize wing aerodynamics with FlexFoil, a seamless variable geometry airfoil system.

In development since 2001, FlexFoil is made from what is described only as “aerospace materials,” and is seamlessly integrated into the trailing edge of the wing. Based on a technology known as “distributed compliance,” the morphing structure integrates actuators and sensors that, according to Flexsys, results in “large deformations in shape morphing with very small strains.”

flexfoil1According to a 2006 paper co-written by mechanical engineer Dr. Sridhar Kota (the FlexFoil’s inventor), the foils are:

optimized to resist deflection under significant external aerodynamic loading and are just as stiff and strong as a conventional flap.

What this translates to in real terms is a tolerance of over 4500 kg (10,000 lbs) in air loads and the ability to distribute pressure more evenly throughout the wing, resulting in less strain in any one area. It is also said to reduce wind noise by up to 40 percent on landing, and to lessen build-up of both ice and debris. But the biggest benefit comes in terms of fuel economy.

flexfoil2When retrofitted onto a wing, FlexFoil can reduce fuel consumption by a claimed 4 to 8 percent, with that number climbing to 12 percent for those wings that are built are the system. What’s more, the technology could be applied to anything that moves relative to a fluid medium, including things like helicopter rotor blades, wind turbine blades, boat rudders, or pump impellers.

FlexFoil was officially introduced to the public this week at the AIAA (American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics) SciTech exposition in Washington, DC. Plans call for flight tests to be performed this July at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center, where the flaps of a Gulfstream business jet will be replaced with the foils.

Check out this video of the airwing design and what it does here:

morphing-wings1To be fair, this is not the only case of flexible, morphing aircraft in development right now. In fact, NASA has been looking to create a morphing aircraft concept ever since 2001. So far, this has included collaborating with Boeing and the U.S. Air Force to create the Active Aeroelastic Wing (AAW) which was fitted to the F/A-18 Hornet, a multirole combat jet in use with the USAF.

But looking long-term, NASA hopes to create a design for a morphing airplane (pictured above). Known as the 21st Century Aerospace Vehicle, and sometimes nicknamed the Morphing Airplane, the concept includes a variety of smart technologies that could enable inflight configuration changes for optimum flight characteristics, and is an example of biomimetic technology.

morphing-wings2In this case, the biological design being mimicked is that of a bird. Through the use of smart materials that are flexible and can change their shape on command, the 21st Century Aerospace Vehicle is able to shape its wings by extending the tips out and slightly upward to give it optimal lift capability. In this configuration, the inspiration for the aircraft’s wings is most clear (pictured above).

But once airborne, the aircraft needs a wing that is capable of producing less wind resistance while still maintaining lift. This is why the wings, upon reaching and service ceilings in excess of 3000 meters (10,000 feet), the wings then contract inward and sweep back to minimize drag and increase airspeed velocity.
Though this program has yet to bear fruit, it is an exciting proposal, and provides a glimpse of the future.

Be sure to check out NASA’s video of the CAV too, and keep your eyes on the skies. Chances are, jets that utilize smart, morphing surfaces are going to be there soon!


Sources: gizmag.com, flexsys.com, nasa.gov

The Future is Here: Self-Healing Concrete!

concreteBack in 2009, the US suffered a rather serious embarrassment as the American Society of Civil Engineers gave its national infrastructure a grade ‘D’. To make matters worse, they claimed that getting that grade up to a ‘B’ standard would require roughly $2.2 trillion worth of investment. So, any technology that might make repairing bridges, roads, and buildings easier, and perhaps cheaper, has been welcomed with open arms.

And this might just be a topical solution, not to mention a very impressive sign of things to come. Led by Chan-Moon Chung, a professor of chemistry at Yonsei University in South Korea, researchers have come up with a protective coating for concrete that seals up cracks when exposed to sunlight. Not only would this save billions in infrastructure costs, it would address a central problem civil engineers have always faced.

MODEL5_plus 1..1For starters, concrete is a strong and resilient substance, but a brittle one as well. Tiny fractures appear quite easily over time, and exposure to wind and rain cause these to expand. This new substance addresses that through the polymer microcapsules it contains, which melt when exposed to the sun and fill these in. What’s more, Chung says the agent is relatively inexpensive, and won’t freeze in winter.

And his is not the only proposed solution for a new “smart concrete” system. A team from the Delft University of Technology, in the Netherlands, has developed a living “bio-concrete”, which used a mixture that is impregnated with a bacteria called Bacillus megaterium to produce a crack-filling mineral, called calcite (calcium carbonate). And similar research is being conducted at Northumbria University and the University of Michigan. megaterium

But all of this may take a backseat to Michelle Pelletier of the University of Rhode Island who, along with URI Chemical Engineering Professor Arijit Rose, began work on a self-healing concrete back in 2010. In her specialized concrete matrix, micro-encapsulated sodium silicate is embedded and used as the healing agent, rather than a method that generates silicate.

When cracks form, these silicate capsules rupture and react with calcium hydroxide, which is already present in the concrete. These come together to form a calcium-silica-hydrate gel that heals the cracks and blocks the concrete’s pores, all in the space of about a week. According to Pelletier, this method is more cost-effective than the proposed calcium carbonate solutions and does not require an environmental trigger like sunlight or moisture, just pressure.

smart_concreteThe benefits of these new concepts for “smart concrete” present many benefits. Not only are they likely to save money in maintenance costs for cities everywhere, concrete can be infused with these repairing gels and manufactures cheaply. This puts them in contrast with other proposed “smart-materials”, which offer the possibility of being self-repairing but cost an arm and a leg to produce.

Sources: fastcoexist.com, gizmag.com, pubs.acs.org