A Single Actuator Mechanism for Airfoil Shape Morphing

Presented in this paper is a single actuator mechanism for airfoil shape morphing. The said mechanism is designed as a linkage array that is driven by one actuator to provide multiple output points along the entire airfoil shape. This mechanism consists of two components, namely the shape adaptation linkage (SAL) and the connector linkage. Each connector is made up of a passive camber connector (PCC) or an active camber connector (ACC). The PCC conditions the output of an SAL while the ACC serves to create the camber morphing effect. The design method is proposed with three steps: Camber Mapping, Shape Adaptation Linkage Synthesis, and Connector Synthesis. The proposed method has been applied to design a number of NACA airfoils with camber morphing to demonstrate the effectiveness.