26th Congress of International Council of the Aeronautical Sciences
including the 8th AIAA Aviation Technology, Integration, and Operations (ATIO) Conference
14 - 19 September 2008, Anchorage, Alaska, USA
Paper ICAS 2008-7.8.1


DESIGN AND MANUFACTURING OF COMPOSITE CHIRAL STRUCTURES WITH MORPHING CAPABILITIES

P. Bettini, A. Airoldi, L. Di Landro, G. Sala, A. Spadoni*, M. Ruzzene*
Politecnico di Milano, Italy; *Georgia Inst. of Technology, USA

Keywords: chiral truss-core airfoil, morphing, composite materials, manufacturing

Chiral topologies allow to implement morphing capabilities in airfoil structures. Moving from previous results obtained with light alloy chiral cores, the paper presents the design of composite chiral structures, setting up their manufacturing process. The stiffness and the strength of composite chiral cells are then numerically and experimentally evaluated.


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