Shape Identification of a wing model by additive manufacturing for transonic tunnel testing

Additive manufacturing with a higher degree of design and manufacturing freedom has the potential to enhance structural performance and capability. The technique may also help to effectively perform wind tunnel testing. This paper aims to explore a structural shape identification technique for additively manufactured wing structures to enhance the capability of additively manufactured wing models for transonic wind tunnel testing. The objectives of this paper are 1) to explore the feasibility and capability of a method for the structural shape identification of additively manufactured solid wing structures based on strain measurements, and 2) to design an integrated structural monitoring system into AM-based transonic wing models, which enables the effective construction and investigation of aeroelastic wing models, and 3) to investigate the prediction accuracy for deformations of such a wing model. Ko’s displacement theory was applied to identify structural deformations of wing structures based on strain measurements in this study. Based on the numerical results, it was shown that Ko’s theory could provide good predictions even for the deformations of a solid swept and tapered wing with an unsymmetric airfoil. The aeroelastic simulation proved that the shape prediction of such a wing model based on the designed strain measurement system and Ko’s theory could provide sufficient accuracy for deformation monitoring.