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US 12,296,948 B2Granted
Variable morphing wing using surface actuated origami folds
AssigneeNortheastern University
InventorsMoneesh Upmanyu, Raman Vaidya
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Morphable active corrugate structure and aeronautical wings are provided herein including one or more skins or envelopes, and a sheet having independently actuable hinge domains attached to the one or more skins or envelopes and independently actuable facet domains, each of the hinge domains and facet domains configured with through-thickness differential expansion coefficients, wherein differential strains in at least one of the hinge domains or the facet domains cause the sheet to expand or contract along a flexible axis of the sheet, wherein the sheet is attached to the upper and lower skins at respective upper and lower of the hinge domains.
Claims21
A morphable active corrugate structure comprising:
- upper and lower skins;
- and
- a sheet having;
- a plurality of independently actuable hinge domains, each attached to one of the upper and lower skins and having a hinge domain through-thickness differential expansion coefficient (αH), and
- a plurality of independently actuable facet domains, each adjacent to one of the hinge domains, not attached to the upper and lower skins, and having a facet domain through-thickness differential expansion coefficient (αF), wherein, for adjacent facet and hinge domains, αF<αH and a thickness of the facet domain (hF) is less than a thickness of the adjacent hinge domain (hH) in an unactuated state,
- wherein the application of a domain-specific actuation force (ΔF) to one or more of the hinge and/or facet domains generates differential strains in the one or more of the hinge and/or facet domains, causing the sheet to locally expand or contract along a flexible direction of the sheet to create a local curvature (K) according to the relationship K=αΔF/h to produce a morphable shape of the active corrugate structure;
- and
- wherein the applied ΔF is adjustable to change the differential strains in the one or more of the hinge and/or facet domains to produce a different morphable shape of the active corrugate structure.
5 more elements
A morphable enveloped corrugate structure comprising:
- a skin forming an envelope;
- a sheet within the envelope having;
- a plurality of independently actuable hinge domains each attached to the skin and having a hinge domain through-thickness differential expansion coefficient (αH), and
- a plurality of independently actuable facet domains, each adjacent to one of the hinge domains, not attached to the skin, and having a facet domain through-thickness differential expansion coefficient (αF), wherein, for adjacent facet and hinge domains, αF<αH and a thickness of the facet domain (hF) is less than a thickness of the adjacent hinge domain (hH) in an unactuated state,
- wherein the application of a domain-specific actuation force (ΔF) to one or more of the hinge and/or facet domains generates differential strains in the one or more of the hinge and/or facet domains, causing the sheet to locally expand or contract along a flexible direction of the sheet to create a local curvature (K) according to the relationship K=αΔF/h to produce a morphable shape of the enveloped corrugate structure;
- and
- wherein the applied ΔF is adjustable to change the differential strains in the one or more of the hinge and/or facet domains to produce a different morphable shape of the enveloped corrugate structure.
4 more elements
An aeronautical wing comprising:
- a wing envelope;
- a sheet within the wing envelope having:
- a plurality of independently actuable hinge domains each attached to the wing envelope and having a hinge domain through-thickness differential expansion coefficient (αH), and
- a plurality of independently actuable facet domains, each adjacent to one of the hinge domains, not attached to the wing envelope, and having a facet domain through-thickness differential expansion coefficient (αF), wherein, for adjacent facet and hinge domains, αF<αH and a thickness of the facet domain (hF) is less than a thickness of the adjacent hinge domain (hH) in an unactuated state,
- wherein the application of a domain-specific actuation force (ΔF) to one or more of the hinge and/or facet domains generates differential strains in the one or more of the hinge and/or facet domains, causing the sheet to locally expand or contract along a flexible direction of the sheet to create a local curvature (K) according to the relationship K=αΔF/h to produce a morphable shape of the aeronautical wing;
- and
- wherein the applied ΔF is adjustable to change the differential strains in the one or more of the hinge and/or facet domains to produce a different morphable shape of the aeronautical wing.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.