Compliant cellular structures: Application to a passive morphing airfoil

Abstract Cellular materials are known to have two properties; structures and mechanisms. Therefore, one may design structures with cellular materials while controlling stiffness and flexibility depending on the struts’ connectivity. The objectives of this study are to investigate in-plane flexible properties of bending dominated cellular materials under macroscopic deformation and to secure a method to design a passive morphing airfoil with flexible cellular cores. The airfoil with three cellular cores (chiral, regular and re-entrant hexagonal honeycombs) is investigated under a static load through the deformation gradient of the cellular cores under an aerostatic load. The structural performance of the airfoil with the designed compliant cellular cores is validated through the fluid–structure interaction through which a structural finite element analysis is combined with fluid statics. Considering the deformation of the airfoil with flexible cellular cores under an aerostatic load, shear is the dominant deformation mode of the cores of the airfoil. The re-entrant hexagonal honeycomb core shows the highest flexibility in shear and causes a lower stress in local cell walls in shear than the other cellular cores when the cellular mesostructures are designed to have the same shear modulus. This implies that the re-entrant hexagonal honeycomb core has the potential to be used as a structure with a passive morphing airfoil.