Morphing airfoil system
AssigneeToyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc.
InventorDanil V. Prokhorov
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A morphing airfoil system includes an airfoil including a bulkhead and an airfoil body extending from the bulkhead, at least one inflatable/deflatable bladder positioned within the airfoil body, and a bladder pressurization mechanism configured for controlling pressurization of the at least one bladder. The system also includes one or more processors and a memory communicably coupled to the one or more processors and storing an airfoil control module including instructions that when executed by the processor(s) cause the processor(s) to control operation of the bladder pressurization mechanism to increase or decrease internal pressure in the at least one bladder to change a configuration of the airfoil.
Claims13
A morphing airfoil system comprising:
- an airfoil including a bulkhead and an airfoil body extending from the bulkhead;
- a pair of rotatable spools operably coupled to the bulkhead, the airfoil body being operably coupled to the pair of rotatable spools so as to enable a configuration of the airfoil to be changed by rotation of at least one spool of the pair of rotatable spools;
- at least one inflatable/deflatable bladder positioned within the airfoil body;
- a bladder pressurization mechanism configured for controlling pressurization of the at least one bladder;
- one or more processors;
- and
- a memory communicably coupled to the one or more processors and storing an airfoil control module including instructions that when executed by the one or more processor(s) cause the processor(s) to control operation of the bladder pressurization mechanism to increase or decrease internal pressure in the at least one bladder to change a configuration of the airfoil.
A method of controlling a configuration of an airfoil in a morphing airfoil system, the system including:
- an airfoil having a bulkhead;
- an airfoil body extending from the bulkhead;
- a pair of rotatable spools operably coupled to the bulkhead and to the airfoil body so as to enable a configuration of the airfoil to be changed by rotation of at least one spool of the pair of rotatable spools;
- at least one inflatable/deflatable bladder positioned within the airfoil body;
- and
- a bladder pressurization mechanism configured for controlling pressurization of the at least one bladder,
- the method comprising a step of controlling operation of the bladder pressurization mechanism to increase or decrease internal pressure in the at least one bladder to change the configuration of the airfoil.
A morphing airfoil system comprising:
- an airfoil including a bulkhead structured to form a leading edge of the airfoil and an airfoil body extending from the bulkhead and defining a cavity;
- and
- a pair of rotatable spools operably coupled to the bulkhead and to the airfoil body so as to enable a configuration of the airfoil to be changed by rotation of at least one spool of the pair of rotatable spools, the airfoil system including at least one inflatable/deflatable bladder positioned within the cavity and structured to span a distance between a first side of the airfoil body and a second side of the airfoil body opposite the first side, the airfoil system being configured to control the distance by controlling a pressure in the at least one bladder and simultaneously or sequentially controlling rotation of the spools to wind or unwind an airfoil skin extending between the spools, so as to control a length of the airfoil skin extending between the spools.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.