Design of an experimental study of fiber-optics shape sensing for elastic wings

The paper presents the design of an elastic wing wind-tunnel test for aeroelastic shape sensing via fiber optic sensors. An elastic wing, of rapid prototyping, was designed to meet the requirements of the shape sensing experiment, under the constraints of the test facility. The wing was designed with a possibility to add front/aft concentrated weights in order to change its aeroelastic properties. With an aft weight the wing flutters within the feasible wind-tunnel speeds, thus allowing identification of aeroelastic characteristics (frequencies and modal damping) via shape sensing, along a large range of dynamic pressure values (from small stable elastic deformations to full flutter). An algorithm for transformation of measured strains to deflections was tested based on strains and deflections computed in finite-element analysis, due to two aeroelastic loading cases. In both cases the algorithm was found to be suitable for accurately predicting the bending deformations and torsion angles along the wing, with high accuracy, provided sufficient strain measurements along the wing. Future study will involve testing the wing in the wind tunnel, measuring strains in various dynamic pressure and angles of attack scenarios, in both static and dynamic response cases, for assessment of the suitability of fiber-optic sensing for aeroelastic shape sensing and system identification.