Design, manufacture and testing of a seamless morphing concept for a smart aircraft wingtip

This study is focused on the mechanical properties of an adaptive elastomericpart, developed for potential application in smart wings. Elastomer precursor was used tomanufacture a bonded, deformable part, which is used to close the variable gap between amoving part and a non-moving part of a wing section. The basic functionality of the part is totake up the geometric gap change and to turn it into strain. In this way, a smooth transitionbetween the connected surfaces can be obtained. An elastomeric material, which wasoptimized for the specific application, was investigated. The tests involve static loads, fatigueloads, and physical aging in the temperature range from -55°C to +80°C. A constitutivematerial model was developed and subsequently used in order to predict the properties of theadaptive part. Finally, a prototype of the part was manufactured and tested.