Session: 01-02-03 Adaptive and Multifunctional Structures III

Paper Number: 110875

110875 - Design of Deployable Rotor Blades Based on Snapping Instabilities 

Rotor blades that can be packaged inside a small diameter, and deploy to a larger, operational diameter in air will significantly expand launch flexibility of aerial vehicles. This paper proposes a novel deployable rotor blade concept with the capability of being packaged extensively for stowage and self-deploy to its original shape for thrust generation without external actuation. Inspired by the rapid wing unfolding of ladybird beetles, the proposed deployable rotor uses snap-through buckling in thin-shells as the underlying principle to invoke fast, extensive, and reversible shape change. In this paper, the instability-based principle is first illustrated, followed by the aerodynamic and structural design using blade element momentum and finite element analyses. A proof-of-concept deployable blade is fabricated and tested under rotation to demonstrate the thrust performance and structural integrity. The experimental measurements are compared with directly resolved computational fluid dynamics simulations where close agreement is obtained.

Presenting Author: Kawai Kwok University of Central Florida

Presenting Author Biography: Kawai Kwok is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Central Florida. He received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Lehigh University, his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Aerospace Engineering from the California Institute of Technology. Prior to joining the University of Central Florida, he was a Research Scientist at the Technical University of Denmark. His research interests are in the mechanics of structures and materials including thin-shell and membrane structures, instabilities, micromechanics, and multifunctional composites, with a focus towards deployable and reconfigurable aerospace structures. He is a recipient of the NSF CAREER award and the NASA Robert H. Goddard Exceptional Achievement for Engineering award.

Authors:

Annan Mashin University of Central Florida
David Malyszek University of Central Florida
Bowen Li University of Central Florida
Michael Kinzel University of Central Florida
Kawai Kwok University of Central Florida