Composite Structures 290 (2022) 115444

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Composite Structures
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/compstruct

Development of a new flexible wing concept for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

using corrugated core made by 4D printing of composites
Suong Hoa *, Marjan Abdali, Anick Jasmin, Daniel Radeschi, Victor Prats, Hadi Faour,
Backer Kobaissi
Concordia Center for Composites, Department of Mechanical, Industrial and Aerospace Engineering, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: This paper presents a feasibility study on the application of the method of 4D printing of composites for the
Active Compliant Trailing Edge (ACTE) efficient manufacturing of adaptive compliant trailing edge (ACTE) morphing wing. The ACTE morphing wing is
Morphing of wings a tapered sandwich structure made of composite materials. The wing has flat upper and lower skins, and a
4D printing of composites
corrugated core. The corrugated core is made using the concept of 4D printing of composites. With this concept,
Corrugated laminates
Sandwich structures
there is no need for a mold with complex geometry to make the corrugated core. Instead only a flat mold is used.
A prototype of the wing was made and tested. It was shown that this wing can sustain the load for a medium size
Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, with flex angle up to 20◦ .

1. Introduction
Conventional aircrafts typically rely on hinged flaps known as aile­
rons to help control the tilt of the airplane during flight. Scientists have
long sought to develop an aircraft that can alter or morph their wing
during flight, just as birds can. There are many types of morphing wings.
However in this project, we will focus solely on the novel morphing wing
structure known as Active Compliant Trailing Edge (ACTE) [1] [2].
Compared to the conventional plane flap airfoil, the morphing wing
using ACTE structures has the capability to improve aerodynamic
characteristic and flow separation characteristic resulting in fuel effi­
ciency. Contrary to general wing structures which are required to be
stiff, structure flexibility is preferred in morphing wings. Composites are
anisotropic materials that are stiff in the fiber direction and flexible in
the direction perpendicular to the fibers. Furthermore, corrugated
composite structures are flexible in the corrugation direction and stiff in
the transverse direction. Based on these properties, morphing wings
manfactured from corrugated composites are expected to withstand the
bending load and to change shape easily [3].
Based on the concept of distributed compliance [4], Ni Rui et al [2]
proposed a variable camber adaptive wing structure (called Active
Compliant Trailing Edge (ACTE)) as shown in Fig. 1. The active wing
model is composed of two major parts: the rigid support section and the
active compliant trailing edge. The flexible trailing edge is composed of
fiberglass composites skins, stringers, linear guide pairs, and trailing
edge strip. Through the relative sliding between the upper and lower
wing skins, which were connected by a linear guide pairs, the ACTE is
able to achieve a large continuous bending deformation.
Fig. 2 shows the concept for the deformation, and Fig. 3 shows a
prototype of ACTE deeloped by Ni Rui et al. [2].
The ACTE as proposed by Ni Rui et al. [2] utilizes stringers to provide
stiffness to the trailing edge. In this work, we propose another concept to
provide stiffness for the trailing edge. That is a sandwich strucure with
corrugated core as shown in Fig. 4.
There are two main advantages for this proposal:
1. The corrugated structure can provide stiffness in the span direction
and flexibility in the chord direction [3].
2. The corrugated core may be made using the concept of 4D printing of
composites. The concept of 4D printing of composites was proposed
by Hoa [5]. Subsequently, Filipovic and Kress [6] proposed to use
this concept for the manufacturing of corrugated laminates. The
advantage of 4D printing of composites is that only a flat mold is
required. This can provide time and cost saving for the
manufacturing.
The uncertainty in taking this approach is whether the composite
wing can support the bending load and provide the desired degree of
flexibility. This is because in 4D printing of composites, there is a limit
on the minimum radius that can be manufactured. Previous work [7],

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: hoasuon@alcor.concordia.ca (S. Hoa).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compstruct.2022.115444
Received 27 November 2021; Received in revised form 8 February 2022; Accepted 2 March 2022
Available online 9 March 2022
0263-8223/© 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
S. Hoa et al. Composite Structures 290 (2022) 115444

dip at the lay up sequence [0/902], the radius of curvature increases as

the number of layers is increased, within a particular family of lay-up
sequence (for example for the family of [0 m/90n]). The smallest
radius of curvature is 6.1 cm for a laminate with 3 layers. Also, thicker
laminates tend to have larger radius of curvature. This can be seen by
comparing the radius of curvature between the [0/90] and [02/902]
laminates. Due to the geometrical constraints of the wing, the radius of
curvature of the core may be required to be small. By using the method
of 4D printing of composites for the manufacture of the core, thinner
Fig. 1. Actice compliant trailing edge concdept, based on distributed compli­
laminates may need to be used. The question is whether the thin lami­
ance skins [2].
nates would be able to support the required wing load.

shows that the radius of curvatures of un-symmetric laminates made 2. Objective

using 4D printing of composites depends on the lay-up sequence. Table 1
shows the radius of curvature of a few laminates made of carbon/epoxy. The objective of the work of this paper is to investigate the feasibility
It can be seen that as the number of layers increases from 2, apart from a of using the method of 4D printing of composites for the manufacture of

Fig. 2. Concept for the deformation of the ACTE [2].

Fig. 3. Active Compliant Trailing Edge prototype [2].

Fig. 4. Concept of a morphing wing with corrugated core for the morphing section.

2
S. Hoa et al. Composite Structures 290 (2022) 115444

Table 1
Radius of curvature of a few laminates made of carbon/epoxy [7].
Lay-up sequence Number of layers Radius of curvature cm (in)

0/90 2 6.3 (2.48)

0/902 3 6.1 (2.40)
0/903 4 7.6 (2.99)
0/904 5 9.5 (3.74)
02/902 4 12.5 (4.92)

Fig. 5. NACA airfoil 0012–34 [8].

Table 2
Specifications of the Scan Eagle [12].
PARAMETER VALUE UNIT

Wingspan 10.2 Ft
Wing Area 10.2 ft2
Empty Weight 30.9 – 39.68 Lbs
Gross Weight 39.7 Lbs

Fig. 6. Theoretical geometry of corrugated core.

the core in an ACTE wing. This feasibility depends on the selection of the
shape and size of the wing, the wing load, the design of the lay- up
sequence such that the wing can support the load, and should be able to
exhibit significant morphing capability. For this purpose, light weight
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles were used to size up the trailing edge.
3. Selection of shape and size of the wing
In order to simplify the manufacturing process, the NACA 0012-34
airfoil (Fig. 5) is selected. The profile of this airfoil is given in equa­
tion (1) (for a chord length of 1 m) [8]:

Table 3
Material properties of the carbon/epoxy (CYCOM 5320–1 T650) [5].
E1 (psi) 20.77 x106
E2 (psi) 1.33 x106
G12 (psi) 0.718x106
ν12 0.326
ν23 0.3
α1 (/oF) ¡0.01 x10-6
α2(/oF) 13.5x10-6
β1 0
β2 0.0001
t (in) 0.00054

3
S. Hoa et al.
√̅̅̅
y = ∓0.594689181[0.298222773 x − 0.127125232x − 0.357907906x2
+ 0.291984971x3 − 0.105174606x4 ]
where x is the horizontal coordinate from the left (chord direction) and y
is the vertical coordinate.
The morphing section of the wing starts at approximately 65%− 70%
of the chord length. Aircrafts use a take-off angle setting roughly at
5◦ –15◦ , while the angle for landing is larger. It should be noted that such
specifications vary for different applications.
4. Wing loading
The wing loading is the weight of the aircraft divided by the area of
the reference wing. Wing loading affects stall speed, climb range, take-
off and landing distances, and turn performance. The wing loading de­
termines the design lift coefficient and impact drag through its effect
upon wetted area and wing span.
Due to the thinness of the corrugated core, it was decided that small
aircrafts such as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles would be more suitable than
larger aircrafts. UAVs are often used in aerospace or military applica­
tions where the main advantage is that there is no need for a human
operator. It is guided autonomously or through remote control. UAVs
have different sizes ranging from small UAVs (0–20 lbs) to medium
UAVs (21 lbs− 55 lbs) to large UAVs (<1320 lbs) [9][10]. For the pur­
pose of this project, medium size UAVs were selected [11].
One specific example is the Boeing In-situ Scan Eagle. It is a small,
long-endurance, low-altitude unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) built by
Insitu, a subsidiary of Boeing. Its specifications are shown in Table 2.
From the wing area and gross weight, we obtain the wing loading as:
Wingloading = (weight)/(wingarea) = 39.7lbs/10.2ft2 = 3.89lbs/ft2
This loading will be used to compare against the experimental
loading in a later section.
Fig. 7. Sample with uniform curvature (a) Lay-up sequence for the prepregs, (b) final configuration of laminae after curing and cooling to room temperature.
Composite Structures 290 (2022) 115444
5. Derivations of the shape of the corrugated core
(1)
The outline of the NACA 0012 airfoil is shown in Equation (1). Using
this airfoil definition, contact points between the core and the skins need
to be found in order to describe the core by a set of continuous equations.
To locate the expected contact points, a set of design criteria were
imposed on the dimensions of the core, as follows:
1. Based on initial manufacturing iterations and dimensions esti­
mates, the chord length of the airfoil was assumed to be c = 90.34 in.
This limitation is due to the limitation of the size of the available
autoclave to handle the flexible part which is about 1/3 of the chord
length.
2. The onset of the corrugated core should begin at 65% of the airfoil
chord length (i.e. xi = 0.65c = 58.72 in.).
3. The span of the core should be equal to 30% of the entire chord
length (i.e. the position of the start of the core is at xi = 0.65c = 58.72
in., and the position of the end of the core is at xf = 58.72 + 0.3c = 58.72
+ 27.10 = 85.83 in.).
4. The core should feature 3 complete oscillations which means 6
peaks all evenly spaced (i.e. the periodic length of each oscillation
should equate 0.1c = 9.03 in.).
5. The core will be described by a piecewise continuous function,
linking together separate curves, in order to avoid using a single, large
degree polynomial.
6. Based on testing of tapered core in two different orientations, the
first curve of the core (at the larger end) should be concave upwards, in
order to theoretically obtain more desirable results.
Upon locating the contact points between the core and skins, a
piecewise continuous function could be written to describe the geometry
of the corrugated core by a chain of 6 parabolas. This is shown in
(2) equation (3) (dimensions in inches) and Fig. 6.
4
S. Hoa et al. Composite Structures 290 (2022) 115444

Fig. 8. Lay-up arrangement with different amounts of overlaps (a). Overlap of 1 in., (b). Overlap of 2 in., (c). Overlap of 3 in.

Table 4
Radii of curvature for 3 samples.
Sample # Overlap (inch) Radius of curvature (in)
30
A 3 6.74
B 2 8.63
C 1 11.51
20
⎧
⎪
⎪ 0.6716(x − 2.2586)2 − 3.4259, 0⩽x < 4.5172
⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ − 0.5848(x − 6.7758)2 + 2.9832, 4.5172⩽x < 9.0344
10 ⎨
0.4927(x − 11.293)2 − 2.5134, 9.0344⩽x < 13.5516
y(x) = (3)
⎪
⎪ − 0.3935(x − 15.8102)2 + 2.0075, 13.5516⩽x < 18.0688
⎪
⎪ 2
⎪
⎪ 0.2873(x − 20.3274) 2− 1.4654, 18.0688⩽x < 22.586
⎩
− 0.1775(x − 24.8446) + 0.9053, 22.586⩽x < 27.1032
Note that the method of 4D printing of composites (4DPC) is using
Fig. 9. Deformed shape of three samples.
un-symmetric laminates such as those with [0 m/90n] lay up sequence.
The prepregs are initially laid down flat. Upon curing and cooling to
room temperature, the laminate takes up cylindrical bending to become

5
S. Hoa et al.
Fig. 10. Uneven spacing to provide tapered configuration.
circular curves. The curves as produced from just 4DPC are circular and
not parabolic. In the process of making the flexible wing, the core is
compressed along its length to make it fit into the profile of the airfoil.
The curves then become parabolas. Compression of the core also stiffens
the core.
6. Lay-up design
To manufacture the corrugated structure using 4DPC, different lay-
up sequences need to be tried out. Only [90] and [0] orientations are
used to achieve the desired curvature, since other orientations may
result in twisting which is not wanted in the design of the corrugated
core. Many iterations were needed to achieve the optimum shape and
equivalent properties.
For the initial lay-up sequence, the radius of curvature for the [0/90]
lay-up using the composite properties shown in Table 3 was found to be
4 in. This was done using a MATLAB code, written according to the
6
Composite Structures 290 (2022) 115444
procedure given in reference [5]. Note that the procedure given in [5]
was using laminate theory, which is a point theory that generally can not
accurately predict the large deformations of plates of finite extension.
However it was shown by Hyer [13,14] that for plates of large aspect
ratios between the two lateral dimensions, the structure assumes a cy­
lindrical bending shape where the curvature is about the same as that
determined from laminate theory.
• Note that the material properties in Table 3 are different from those
in Table 1.
The autoclave at the Concordia Center for Composites has a length
limit of 40 in., and this puts a limit on the length of the trailing edge. By
using the equation of the airfoil (equation (1)), a CAD model with the
estimated number of peaks (6) was created.
Later, the model was flattened to achieve the location for each peak
(in the flattened position) for the first lay-up sequence. The width of the
S. Hoa et al. Composite Structures 290 (2022) 115444

Fig. 11. First lay-up design.

Fig. 12. Lay-up arrangement of the corrugated core with adhesive areas.

7
S. Hoa et al. Composite Structures 290 (2022) 115444

Fig. 13. Morphing section of the final wing assembly.

Fig. 14. Photo of the structure.

sample was chosen to be 3 in.
At first a uniform corrugation was manufactured to observe the
curvature with and without overlapping section at each peak. Fig. 7
shows the sample without any overlap. Fig. 7a shows the lay-up of the
prepregs in the flat configuration, and Fig. 7b shows the laminate after
curing and cooling to room temperature. It can be seen that without any
overlap, the flat configuration becomes curved, but the amplitude of the
deformation is not large. Also, the uniform spacing does not provide a
laminate that meets the requirement for a tapered configuration. This
situation is addressed using two methods: One is the use of overlaps and
the other is the use of non-uniform spacing.
6.1. Overlaps
In order to increase the amplitude of the deformation, modifications
of the lay-up arrangement need to be done. One way would be to
introduce overlaps between segments. Fig. 8 shows three lay-up ar­
rangements with different amounts of overlaps. The total length of the
flat lay- up is 40 in. The laminate utilizes [0/90] to provide the curva­
ture. There are 3 pairs, each 12 in. long: [0/90] on the left, [90/0] in the

Fig. 15. End support pieces.

8
S. Hoa et al.
Fig. 16. Testing in cantilever mode.
middle and [0/90] on the right. In Fig. 8a, there is an overlap of 1 in.
between the right edge of the left pair and the left edge of the center pair.
There is similar overlap between the central pair and the right pair. The
overlap is 2 in. in Fig. 8b and 3 in. in Fig. 8c.
Fig. 9 shows the deformed configuration after curing and cooling.
Sample C is for the case of 1 in. overlap, sample B for 2 in. overlap and
sample A for 3 in. overlap. The radii of curvature in these samples were
measured using software Digimizer. In this method, a scale is placed
next to the figure, as shown in Fig. 9. The software takes images of the
figure, uses the scale for calibration, and provides the radius of
curvature.
Table 4 shows the radii of curvature at section 2 in Fig. 9 for the
different samples. It can be seen that increasing the overlap reduces the
radius of curvature (i.e. making the sample to be more curved). As such
the method of overlap may be used to vary the curvature in the core.
6.2. Uneven spacing
Another requirement for the deformed configuration is that it should
be tapered. This can be addressed by the use of uneven spacing in the
lay- up arrangement. Fig. 10 shows an example of the uneven arrange­
ment in the lay-up (Fig. 10a) and the resulting deformed shape
(Fig. 10b).
Fig. 17. Thick cantilever beam.
9
Composite Structures 290 (2022) 115444
Using the above methods, after a few iterations, the configuration
shown in Fig. 11 has the correct ratio for the locations of the peaks.
However, the corrugation was too flexible, and the minimum radius was
not small enough to achieve the necessary amplitude.
6.3. Top and bottom skins
The top and bottom skin layers are made of [0/0/0/90]s laminate,
with a width of 3 in.
6.4. Bonding the corrugated core to the skins
There are differences (27% average) between the dimensions of the
corrugated piece made and the theoretical positions as given by equa­
tion (3). In order to decrease the error, the corrugated core was com­
pressed before assembly. Doing so decreased the average error to 2.37%.
This also increases the stiffness of the core. To assemble the peaks and
valleys of the corrugated core under compression with the skin layers, an
assembly jig was made. As the contact areas between the core and the
skin are very small, clamping them was not an option. To join the top
and bottom skin layers to the corrugated core without the need for a
complex assembly jig, square adhesive pieces were added. They were co-
cured at each peak and valley with the corrugated core. Each adhesive
S. Hoa et al. Composite Structures 290 (2022) 115444

Fig. 18. Deformation of a thick cantilever beam subjected to uniformly distributed load.

Fig. 16, a conversion needs to be made.

Table 5 For a cantilever beam of length L, subjected to a concentrated load
Test Data Summary. applied at the end, as shown in Fig. 17, the deformation at any point (x,
N Position Weight (gm) Loading (N) Deformation (in) y) is given as .[15]
1 0 0 0 0
[ ]
P x3 L3 x ( 2 )
2 1 805 7.89 0.5 v= + + νy − L2 + h2 (1 + ν)(L − x) (4)
EI 6 3 2
3 2 1386 13.58 0.825
4 3 2003 19.63 1.15 Where ν is Poisson ratio.
5 4 2295 22.49 1.375
6 5 2753 29.98 1.8
At mid thickness of the left end ( × = 0, y = 0)
7 6 3334 32.67 2.625
PL3 PLh2 (1 + ν) PL3 Ph2 L
8 7 3493 34.23 3.075 v= + = + (5)
9 8 3623 35.51 3.675 3EI EI 3EI 2GI
Note that in equation (5), the first term on the right hand side rep­
resents the deformation for bending of a thin beam, and the second term
piece is made of composite of lay-up sequence [0/90]s and dimensions
represents the deformation due to shear in a thick beam.
of 3 in. × 3 in. Subsequently, the adhesive pieces were joined to the top
Differentiating equation (4) with respect to x:
and bottom skins with room temperature cure epoxy. The final lay-up
[ ]
sequence of the corrugation with the adhesive pieces is shown in dv P x2 νy2 − L2
Fig. 12. In this figure, the composition of piece 1 (red color) is [0] 2, the = + − h2 (1 + ν) (6)
dx EI 2 2
composition of pieces 2 to 8 (blue color) is [90] 2, and the composition of
piece 9 (gray color) is [0/90]s. Piece 9 is the adhesive piece used for
bonding the core to the skins. The bonded area is 4 mm (0.016 in) by 3
At × = 0, y = 0,
in. Metal shims were used to separate the rest of the area of the adhesive
from the core.
The final assembly with compressed core is shown in Fig. 13. Fig. 14 [ ]
shows a photograph of the fabricated sample. The horizontal length of dv
= −
P L2
+ h2 (1 + ν) (7)
the flexible structure is L = 33 in. dx EI 2
Cantilever beam subjected to uniformly distributed load:
7. Testing For the case of a cantilever beam subjected to uniformly distributed
load q (Fig. 18a), it is not possible to obtain a closed form expression for
Two support inserts (one in front and the other in back) were 3D the displacement at the tip. An approximate expression can be obtained
printed to fit at the ends of the assembly (Fig. 15). The assembly was using an equivalent loading as shown in Fig. 18b. The deformation at the
mounted onto a fixed support for testing (Fig. 16) in cantilever mode. left end would be the sum of a displacement v1 at mid length due to a
The wing loading (3.89 lbs/ft2) as given in equation (2) is a load F = qL applied at mid length, plus a deformation v2 obtained from
distributed loading. In order to provide equivalency between the the inclined left part.
distributed loading and end loading in the cantilever mode as shown in Using equation (5) with L replaced by L/2, and then P replaced by qL,

10
S. Hoa et al. Composite Structures 290 (2022) 115444

Fig. 19. Plot of load versus vertical displacement of point A in Fig. 16.

Fig. 20. Position 0 – No load.

11
 S. Hoa et al.
12

Composite Structures 290 (2022) 115444

Fig. 21. Position 1 – (805 g) – (a) photo of assembly – (b) Schematic of configuration. (c) Superposition of configuration between position 0 (blue) and position 1 (green). (For interpretation of the references to color in
this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
 S. Hoa et al.
13

Composite Structures 290 (2022) 115444

Fig. 22. Position 2: (1386 g) – (a) photo, (b) schematic of deformation, (c) Superposition of positions 0 (blue) and 3 (green). (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the
web version of this article.)
S. Hoa et al. Composite Structures 290 (2022) 115444

Fig. 23. Position 6 (3334 g). (a) Photo, (b) schematic of deformation, (c) Superposition between position 9 (blue) and position 6 (green). (For interpretation of the
references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

one has: Yielding:

4 2 2 [ ]
qL qL h (1 + ν) 16L2 + 48h2 (1 + ν)
v1 = + (8) qe = P (12)
24EI 2EI 5L3 + 48Lh2 (1 + ν)
Deformation v2 is obtained by multiplying the half length L/2 on the For the case of a thin beam where h ≪ L, the expression in equation
left with the slope as given in equation (7) (with L replaced by L/2, and (12) becomes q = 16 P
= 3.2 PL. If one were to use Strength of materials
5 L
then P is replaced by qL). 4
and uq = qL
3
for the case of a thin beam, one has uP = 3EI,
PL
8EI
, which gives q =
[ ]
v2 =
qL L3 h2 L(1 + ν
+ (9)
8 P
3 L
= 16 P
6 L
= 2.667 PL.
EI 16 2 The difference between the approximate solutions as given in
Total deformation: Fig. 18b, and that of Strength of Materials is 17%.
In equation (12), qe represents the equivalent distributed load cor­
v = v1 + v2 =
qL4 qL2 h2 (1 + ν) qL4 qL2 h2 (1 + ν)
+ + + responding to the experimental tip load P. This qe may be compared
24EI 2EI 16EI 2EI against the required value in equation (2) to see if the structure made
can withstand the required wing load.
5qL4 qL2 h2 (1 + ν)
v= + (10)
48EI EI
8. Results
Comparing equation (5) and (10), if the deformations are equated,
then an equivalent between the concentrated load P and distributed load Weights were placed on the weighing pan, which is attached to the
q can be obtained as: structure at point A (Fig. 16). There is a calibrated background in the
shadow of the sample for the tracing of its configuration. The initial
5qL4 qL2 h2 (1 + ν) PL3 PLh2 (1 + ν)
+ = + (11) configuration of the sample was traced and used as a reference. For each
48EI EI 3EI EI

14
S. Hoa et al.
Fig. 24. Position 8 (3623 g) – (a) Photo, (b) Schematic, (c) Superposition of positions 0 (blue) and 8 (green). (For interpretation of the references to color in this
figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
particular weight, the vertical position of the point A was recorded, and
the deformed configuration of the sample was traced. Table 5 shows the
data. In this table, the weights (and their corresponding loads) along
with the displacement of the point A are shown. A plot of the load versus
the vertical displacement of point A is shown in Fig. 19. It can be seen
that the displacement varies linearly with the load at the beginning, but
increases nonlinearly at higher loads.
The trace of the initial configuration of the structure is shown in
Fig. 20. Figs. 21–24 show the traces of the deformed configurations at
different loads, along with the reference configuration of the initial
state. The meaning of the positions 0, 1, 2, etc. is shown in Table 5.
9. Discussion
1. Testing was not done until failure. The test was terminated when it
was unsafe to continue.
2. The maximum load sustainable was 3623 g (35.51 N = 7.98 lbs). For
values to be substituted into equation (12), the length is L = 33 in.,
Poisson ratio is assumed to be 0.3. Thickness h is taken to be the
thickness at mid length. From Fig. 6, h = 4.5 in. This gives an
equivalent distributed loading q = 0.135P (lb/in) or 12.93 lb/ft.
Dividing this by the width of 3 in. gives a distributed pressure
15
Composite Structures 290 (2022) 115444
loading of 51.7 lbs/ft2). In section 4 (wing loading), for a Scan Eagle
UAV, the wing loading was 3.89 lb/ft2. It can be seen that the current
wing design can easily take care of the load requirement for the Scan
Eagle UAV, and other larger UAVs.
3. Under loading, the flexible wing deflects not only along the vertical
direction, but also in the horizontal direction. From Fig. 24, the
deflected angle at the top skin is measured to be 10◦ , and that at the
lower skin is 20◦ . The desired shape of the deformation should be
determined from the flight condition. The lay up arrangement may
be arranged to meet the need for the desired shape deformation.
10. Conclusion
The results from the work presented above show that it is possible to
manufacture flexible morphable wing using corrugated core made using
the method of 4D printing of composites. The prototype made and tested
show that for small UAV such as the Scan Eagle, the thin composite
structure can meet the load requirements. Further work is being carried
out to refine the analysis, design, manufacturing and testing of the
structure.
S. Hoa et al. Composite Structures 290 (2022) 115444

Data availability of fluids (ISPF6). Int J Modern Phys: Conf Ser 2016;42:1660173. https://doi.org/
10.1142/S2010194516601733.
[3] Yokozeki T, Takeda S-I, Ogasawara T, Ishikawa T. Mechanical properties of
Data are available at: https://users.encs.concordia.ca/~hoasuon. corrugated composites for candidate materials of flexible wing structures. Compos
A Appl Sci Manuf 2006;37(10):1578–86.
Declaration of Competing Interest [4] Howell Larry L. Compliant mechanism. John Wiley and Sons; 2001.
[5] Hoa SV. Factors affecting the properties of composites made by 4D printing. Adv
Manuf: Polym Compos Sci 2017;3:1–9.
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial [6] Filipovic D, Kress G. Manufacturing method for high amplitude corrugated thin
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence walled laminates. Compos Struct 2019;222:110925. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
compstruct.2019.110925.
the work reported in this paper. [7] Hoa SV. Development of composite springs using 4D printing method. Compos
Struct 2019;210:869–76.
Acknowledgements [8] Airfoil tools, n.d., NACA 0012 airfoils, Retrieved November 2, 2020, from
http://airfoiltools.com/airfoil/details?airfoil=0012-il.
[9] NASA, 2020, September 7, 2DN00: 2D NACA 0012 Airfoil Validation Case (NASA),
Financial support from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Retrieved November 2, 2020, from https://turbmodels.larc.nasa.gov/.
Research Council of Canada is appreciated. The manufacturing of the naca0012_val.html.
[10] UAS, U.A., 2010-2035, https://home.army.mil/rucker/index.php. Retrieved from
overlapped samples by Daniel Rosca, the measurement of the di­ https://www.e-education.psu.edu/geog892/node/5.
mensions of the overlap sample by Heng Wang, and the fabrication of [11] Engineering, 2003, May 1st, Low cost expendable UAV project. Retrieved Jan. 7,
the fabrication of the testing jig by Ashraf Fathy Ahmed are appreciated. 2021, from https://www.scribd.com/document/372281881/CUAVFinalRpt-pdf.
[12] https://web.archive.org/web/20130126192751/http:/www.insitu.
com/systems/scaneagle.
References [13] Hyer MW. Some observations on the curved shape of thin unsymmetric laminates.
J Compos Mater 1981;15(2):175–94.
[1] Miller EJ, Lokos WA, Cruz J, Crampton G, Stephens CA, Kota S, et al. Approach for [14] Hyer MW. Calculations of the room-temperature shapes of unsymmetric laminates.
structurally clearing an adaptive compliant trailing edge flap for flight. SFTE 46th J Compos Mater 1981;15(4):296–310.
Annual symposium, September 2015. [15] Ugural AC, Fenster SK. Advanced mechanics of materials and applied elasticity. 6th
[2] Nie RUI, Qiu JINHAO, Ji HONGLI, Li DAWEI. Aerodynamic characteristic of the ed. Pearson; 2020.
active compliant trailing edge concept, Sixth international symposium on physics

16