BIOMIMETIC SKELETON STRUCTURE OF MORPHING

NOSE CONE FOR AEROSPACE VEHICLE INSPIRED BY

VARIABLE GEOMETRY MECHANISM OF HONEYBEE
ABDOMEN

SEMINAR REPORT

submitted by:

ASHFAQUE IBNU HIFZU

TKM18ME038

to

The APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University

in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of Bachelor
of Technology in Mechanical Engineering.

Department of Mechanical Engineering

TKM College of Engineering, Kollam
January, 2022
 DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
T.K.M COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING, KOLLAM

CERTIFICATE

Certified that this report entitled ‘Biomimetic Skeleton Structure of Morphing Nose
Cone for Aerospace Vehicle Inspired by Variable Geometry Mechanism of Honeybee
Abdomen’ is the report of seminar presented by Ashfaque Ibnu Hifzu, B18MEA20
during 2021-2022 in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the
Degree of Bachelor of Technology in Mechanical Engineering of the APJ Abdul
Kalam Technological University.

Prof. Resmi S.L

Asst. professor
Dept. of Mechanical Engineering
T K M College of Engineering, Kollam.

Dr. Mathew Skaria

Professor
Dept. of Mechanical Engineering
T K M College of Engineering, Kollam.

Dr. Mohammed Shajid N.K

Head of the Department
Dept. of Mechanical Engineering
T K M College of Engineering, Kollam.
 DECLARATION

I, Ashfaque Ibnu Hifzu hereby declare that, this seminar report entitled ‘Biomimetic
Skeleton Structure of Morphing Nose Cone for Aerospace Vehicle Inspired by
Variable Geometry Mechanism of Honeybee Abdomen’ is the bonafide work of mine
carried out under the supervision of Prof. Resmi S.L, Asst. professor, Dept. of
Mechanical Engineering, T K M College of Engineering, Kollam. I declare that, to
the best of my knowledge, the work reported herein does not form part of any other
seminar report or dissertation on the basis of which a degree or award was conferred
on an earlier occasion to any other candidate. The content of this report is not being
presented by any other student to this or any other University for the award of a
degree.

Signature:

Name of the Student:

University Register No: TKM18ME038 of year 2022.

Signature:
Name of Guide:

Countersigned with Name:

Head, Department of Mechanical Engineering
T K M College of Engineering, Kollam. Date:
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I take this opportunity to express my deep sense of gratitude and sincere thanks to all

echanical Engineering for her excellent guidance, positive criticism and valuable comments. I am greatly thankful to Dr. Mohammed Shajid
y contributed to the successful completion of my seminar.

Ashfaque Ibnu Hifzu

Place:
Date:

i
 ABSTRACT

Aerospace vehicles containing aeronautics and astronautics functions have to be

completely reusable to be the key factor to have air and space control power in future.
Currently, nose cone of an aerospace vehicle cannot optimize with the changes in external
environment. The constant structure of nose cone also greatly reduces the range of motion
and flexibility. In this seminar, study of an advancement in design of nose cone is done,
skeleton structure of morphing nose cone was designed inspired by variable geometry
mechanism of honeybee abdomen. This design can achieve stretching and bending
continuously. The manufactured prototype was analyzed experimentally along with
simulation analysis to evaluate the deformation ability and dynamic performance. The
results show that deformation ability of the morphing nose cone meets the design
requirements. The flexibility of drive mechanism in the morphing nose cone causes high
frequency components which will leads to reduction of dynamic performance.

Keywords: Morphing nose cone; honeybee abdomen; Biomimetic skeleton structure; Z-

S foldable intersegmental membrane; RRS chain; RRS chain; link flexibility; motion
characteristics; dynamic performance
 CONTENTS

List of Figures iv

List of Tables v

Chapter 1: Introduction 1

Chapter 2: Skeleton Structure Design of Morphing Nose Cone 2

2.1 Movement Characteristics of Honeybee Abdomen 2

2.2 Skeleton Structure of Morphing Nose Cone 5

2.3 Morphing Principle of Nose Cone 7

Chapter 3: Simulation Analysis of Morphing Nose Cone 8

3.1 Simulation Parameters of Morphing Nose Cone 8

3.2 Simulation Results 10

3.3 The Effects of Link Flexibility on The Dynamic Behavior 12

3.4 Motion Characteristic Analysis of Morphing Nose Cone 14

3.4.1 Evaluation of deformation ability 14

3.4.2 Dynamic performance of morphing nose cone 16

Chapter 4: Conclusion 18

References 19
 LIST OF FIGURES

Fig. 2.1 Curl exercise of honeybee abdomen. 2

Fig. 2.2 The microstructure of the terga and sterna in honeybee abdomen - external. 3

Fig. 2.3 The microstructure of the terga and sterna in honeybee abdomen – internal. 4

Fig. 2.4 Skeleton structure design of morphing nose cone inspired by variable geometry
mechanism of honeybee abdomen. 5

Fig. 2.5. The skeleton structure of morphing nose cone. 6

Fig. 2.6 Kinematic chains of morphing nose cone. 6

Fig. 2.7 Morphing principle of nose cone. 7

Fig. 3.1. Simulation model of morphing nose cone. 9

Fig. 3.2. The positions of the mass center of the flexible and rigid morphing nose cone.
11

Fig. 3.3. The accelerations of the mass center of the flexible and rigid morphing nose
cone. 12

Fig. 3.4. Time-frequency characteristics of acceleration in the Y-direction with 50 GPa

modulus of elasticity. 13

Fig. 3.5. Time-frequency characteristics of acceleration in the Z-direction with 50 GPa

modulus of elasticity. 13

Fig. 3.6. The three phases of deformation process of the morphing nose cone. 15

Fig. 3.7. The three phases of deformation process of the morphing nose cone. 15
 LIST OF TABLES

Table 3.1 Geometric parameters of morphing nose cone. 9

Table 3.2. Material parameters of morphing nose cone. 10

Table 3.3. Driving laws of morphing nose cone. 10

Table 3.4. Characteristic parameters of different elastic modulus. 14

Table 3.5. Deformation sizes of morphing nose cone. 16

Table 3.6. Relative errors of morphing nose cone. 16

 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

Aerospace vehicle are to function in atmosphere and outer space. So, unlike general
aircraft, aerospace vehicle often experiences complex environments when flying in the
atmosphere and re-entering the atmosphere. Recently, new type of reusable round-trip
space vehicle has received great attention. Each scenario demands a particular
requirement of aerodynamic shape of the nose cone, which has a significant effect on the
flight performance and efficiency of aerospace vehicle. To be adaptive with the varying
flight conditions, a morphing geometry design of nose cone has emerged as an effective
approach to provide a multiple-mission capacity for an aerospace vehicle.

Morphing technology has attracted extensive interest to obtain a good performance and
efficiency for the aircraft and aerospace vehicles over a wide range of flight conditions in
recent decades. The development of such morphing aircrafts provides an opportunity for
the design of morphing nose cone and also since the appearance of the strong shock wave
at a hypersonic flight of aerospace vehicle leads to dramatic increase of the drag and
aerodynamic heating of the nose cone much research work have been done on the drag
and aerodynamic heating reduction of the morphing nose cone. One such research was
development of nose cone with the mechanical spike of telescoping length and different
shapes was considered as an effective way to reduce aerodynamic drag due to the reduced
dynamic pressure in the separated flow region. Despite rapid development being
conducted in morphing nose cone, there were still limitations among which was mainly
difficult to adapt continuous change of the aerodynamic load in a wide range of flight
conditions like insect. To adapt to their habitats, insects have developed remarkable
properties and ingenious frames after billions of years of evolution, especially the ability
of real-time flight stability and maneuverability in various complex flight conditions.
Based on studies on insect’s response to varying flight conditions several researchers
found it as an extremely efficient way to obtain high flight performance of the nose cone
in various complex flight conditions. For example, a morphing nose cone for aerospace
vehicle to reduce the aerodynamic drag inspired by the movement characteristics of
honeybee abdomen is designed by Zhao et al [5].

In this paper, a biomimetic skeleton structure of morphing nose cone design is

studied. Further, the design is evaluated.

1
CHAPTER 2: SKELETON STRUCTURE DESIGN OF MORPHING
NOSE CONE

2.1 MOVEMENT CHARACTERISTICS OF HONEYBEE ABDOMEN

The physiological activities of honeybee, such as foraging, migrating, adjusting flight

attitude and breathing exercises are closely related to the movement of honeybee
abdomen. The segmental structure of the honeybee abdomen helps it to achieve adaptive
deformation and supernormal flying performance, which is particularly instructive for the
morphing aircraft design. In order observe the motion characteristics of honeybee
abdomen, an adult foraging worker (Apis mellifera ligustica), which were raised in a
single hive at Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, who’s movements were captured by
a high-speed imaging system (Olympus i-SPEED TR) with a zoom lens (Navitar 12X
Zoom) at 1000 frames per second. Here angle-α is the bending angle, it is defined for
quantify the bending as shown if Fig. 2.1(a), where O is the midpoint of honeybee’s
promerous boundary, C is the endpoint of honeybee abdomen, and OB is the vertical line.
For larger bending deformation, the change in bending angle is smaller. At the beginning
of abdominal movement (Fig. 2.1(b)), the honeybee abdomen started to bend downward
and reached to the maximum deformation (Fig. 2.1(e)).

Fig. 2.1 Curl exercise of honeybee abdomen. (a) The definition of bending angle of honeybee
abdomen. (b-e) The movement of honeybee abdomen captured by a high-speed camera. [4]
 From this observation it was found that the honeybee abdomen is only bended to ventral
and achieved unidirectional deformation in the whole bending phase, which was
coincident with the deformation requirements of the morphing nose cone. It is necessary
to investigate the interior structure of honeybee abdomen to comprehend the movement
mechanism of honeybee abdomen. Specimens were completely dehydrated with an
ethanol series (30%, 50%, 70%, 80%, 90%, 95% and 100%) and dried in Freezing tert-
butanol. Then specimens were sprayed with gold and fixed on a rotating specimen holder
by conducting resin in order. The observation is done using scanning electron microscopy
(Philips XL30 ESEM). The result shows that the honeybee abdomen has a segmental
structure (Fig. 2.2(a) and (b)).

Fig. 2.2 The microstructure of the terga and sterna in honeybee abdomen - external. (a) The
terga of honeybee abdomen. (c) The sterna of honeybee abdomen.

Each segment is connected to its adjacent segments by folded intersegmental membrane.

The folded intersegmental membrane in case of terga and sterna was bilayer with Z shape
and monolayer with a S shape respectively (Fig. 2.3 (a) and (b)). So, together the
connection structures between segments are called Z-S folded intersegmental membrane.
The Z-S folded intersegmental membrane not only connects the adjacent terga and sterna,
but also builds a deformation sealed structure to provide convenience for the asymmetric
bending of honeybee abdomen. Moreover, the movement of honeybee abdomen is
controlled and limited by the Z-S folded intersegmental membrane.
Fig. 2.3 The microstructure of the terga and sterna in honeybee abdomen – internal. (a)
The Z shape FIM between two adjacent terga. TRG, tergum; FIM, folded
intersegmental membrane; BM, bilayer membrane. (b) The S shape FIM between two
adjacent sterna. STM, sternum; MM, monolayer membrane. [4]

Since it was noted that honeybee abdomen has a varying geometry mechanism which is
fairly constant with deformation requirements of the morphing nose cone, a reverse bionic
design is carried out to obtain the optimal structure of morphing nose cone. The contour
of honeybee abdomen is extracted (Fig. 2.4 (a)) and Fig. 2.4 (b) shows the telescopic and
bending configurations obtained by similarity principle. A diamond-shaped structure also
exists in the honeybee abdomen (Fig. 2.4 (c)), which changes the characteristics of the
distributed driving of honeybee abdomen. By imitating the structure of honeybee
abdomen, the internal structure of morphing nose cone (Fig. 2.4 (d)) can be achieved to
transmit the force between adjacent two segments.
Fig. 2.4 Skeleton structure design of morphing nose cone inspired by variable geometry
mechanism of honeybee abdomen. (a) The contour of honeybee abdomen. (b) The
profile structure of morphing nose cone. (c) A similar diamond-shaped structure in the
honeybee abdomen. (d) The internal structure of morphing nose cone. [4]

2.2 SKELETON STRUCTURE OF MORPHING NOSE CONE

As we have seen adaptive functions of honey abdomen, these are highly desirable for a
morphing nose cone. So, a biomimetic skeleton structure of morphing nose cone for
aerospace vehicle is designed. The main three design requirements are (i) The total length
of the morphing nose cone is not less than 0.5 meters and the radius is not less than 0.15
meters; (ii) The telescopic length is not less than 6% of the total length and the bending
angle is not less than 5°; (iii) The nose cone can withstand the distributed load of the outer
surface not less than 50 KPa. As a preliminary stage of the design, an adaptive mechanism
to achieve design requirements without motion interference are designed (Fig. 2.5). The
entire nose cone is ogival shape and divided into six segments, the base segment of which
is a circular ring and the others are cone rings, among which the tip segment with
 spherically blunted fore-body. Besides, the skeleton structure of morphing nose cone is
symmetric about the XOY plane and the YOZ plane, respectively.

Fig. 2.5. The skeleton structure of morphing nose cone. [4]

The mechanism of morphing nose cone is achieved by having four parallel mechanisms
along with two RRR parallel and two RRS parallel mechanisms between two adjacent
segments (Fig. 2.6. (a) and Fig. 2.6. (b)). So, the chain containing the RRR parallel
mechanisms and the RRS parallel mechanisms are defined as the RRR chains and the
RRS chains respectively. The function of two RRR chains is to transmit motion by the
coupled motion of a parallelogram mechanism between two adjacent segments of the
parallel mechanisms, while the two RRS chains mainly maintain motion stability.

Fig. 2.6 Kinematic chains of morphing nose cone. (a) RRR parallel mechanism - YZ plane.
(b) RRS parallel mechanism – XY plane.[4]
The only possible movements for the above shown combination of kinematic chains are
translation along Y-axis and rotation about X-axis. Thus, confirming its degree of
freedom to be two.

2.3 MORPHING PRINCIPLE OF NOSE CONE

Reduction in drag and lowering the aerodynamic heat in the re-entry stage and high-speed
gliding stage are the main requirements to be satisfied for a morphing nose cone. If the
total length of the nose cone L is increased by 6% or more, the nose cone will become
sharp in the re-entry stage. Likewise, if the total length of the nose cone is reduced by 6%
or more, the nose cone will be blunt, can keep the nose cone with low aerodynamic heat
in the high-speed gliding stage (Fig. 2.7). The whole nose cone is deformable except the
spherical cap. The curvature of the deformable ogive is varied with the changes of
aerodynamic load.

Fig. 2.7 Morphing principle of nose cone. [4]

The driving units of the morphing nose cone are connected to two RRR chains. The
morphing nose cone can extend and contract along the horizontal direction when the two
RRR chains are driven synchronously with the same driving laws. If the upper RRR chain
only keep driving, the morphing nose cone can bend downward. Also, the morphing nose
cone can extend and bend simultaneously by differential motion between the upper drive
and down drive of the two RRR chains. Therefore, the deformability of nose cone is
determined not only by the designed mechanism but also by the drive modes.
CHAPTER 3: SIMULATION ANALYSIS OF MORPHING NOSE
CONE

An aerospace vehicle has to get through a very complex flight environment caused by the
aerodynamic force acted on the structure and surface airflow during the supersonic flight.
Also, the system has intricate characteristics of uncertainties and non-linear coupling, due
to the rapid consumption of engine fuel in the atmosphere and the existence of flexible
structure, which can significantly influence the dynamic performance.

3.1 SIMULATION PARAMETERS OF MORPHING NOSE CONE

The study of dynamic performance of morphing nose cone is done by investigating the
dynamic response of the simulation model considering the effect of link flexibility. The
links selected as the flexible links have the maximum slenderness ratios in the four
parallel mechanisms, which are in the key position during the transmission (Fig. 3.1).
ADAMS/Flex module in ADAMS software is used to model flexible links. The
ADAMS/Flex module can create the modal neutral file of flexible links and then replace
the rigid links with flexible links automatically. Aerodynamic load acting on each
segment can be represented as load in axial and radial direction. The radial force can be
the difference in load between the upper surface and the lower surface because of
symmetry. The axial force can be equivalent to a concentrated force acting on the
geometric center of each segment. According to calculations considering bearing
requirement, the concentrated force of each segment is set as 200N. the geometric and
material parameters of the morphing nose cone are listed in Table 3.1 and Table 3.2,
respectively. The speed drives are used as driving unit to control movement of the
morphing nose cone and each drive includes three phases of extension, contraction,
 synchronous extension and bending. The driving speed details are given in Table 3.3. The
simulation environment is considered to be weightless.

Fig. 3.1. Simulation model of morphing nose cone. [4]

Table 3.1 Geometric parameters of morphing nose cone. [4]

Parameters Base Second Third Fourth Fifth Tip

segment segment segment segment segment segment
Outer diameter
of left circle, d 500 500 478 448 403 313
(mm)
Length, L (mm) 90 90 90 90 90 90
Thickness, δ
(mm) 20 20 20 20 20 20

Mass, M (kg) 3.768 3.703 3.525 3.283 2.974 3.809

Ixx (kg.m-2) 0.226 0.213 0.181 0.142 0.091 0.041
Iyy (kg.m-2) 0.116 0.109 0.093 0.073 0.048 0.025
Izz (kg.m-2) 0.116 0.109 0.093 0.073 0.047 0.024
 Table 3.2. Material parameters of morphing nose cone. [4]

Parameters Values

Density, ρ (kg/m3) 1810

Modulus of elasticity, E (GPa) 71.705

Poisson ratio, ν 0.33

Table 3.3. Driving laws of morphing nose cone. [4]

Process Driving speed 1 (rad/s) Driving speed 2 (rad/s)

3.8sin(4𝜋t), 0≤t<0.125s; -3.8sin(4𝜋t), 0≤t<0.125s;

Extension 3.8, 0.125≤t≤0.375s;
3.8sin(4𝜋(t-0.25)), 0.375<t≪0.5s;
4.5sin(4𝜋(t-0.25)), 0.5≤t<0.625s;
Contraction -4.5, 0.625≤t≤0.875s;
4.5sin(4𝜋(t-0.5)), 0.875<t≪1s;
Synchronous 3.5sin(4𝜋(t-0.5)), 1≤t<1.125s;
extension and 3.5, 1.125≤t≤1.375s;
bending 3.5sin(4𝜋(t-0.75)), 1.375<t≪1.5s.
-3.8, 0.125≤t≤0.375s;
-3.8sin(4𝜋(t-0.25)), 0.375<t≪0.5s;
-4.5sin(4𝜋(t-0.25)), 0.5≤t<0.625s;
4.5, 0.625≤t≤0.875s;
-4.5sin(4𝜋(t-0.5)), 0.875<t≪1s;
-2.8sin(4𝜋(t-0.5)), 1≤t<1.125s;
-2.8, 1.125≤t≤1.375s;
-2.8sin(4𝜋(t-0.75)), 1.375<t≪1.5s.

3.2 SIMULATION RESULTS

As we have discussed earlier, the morphing nose cone is free to move in Y-axis and bends
along negative direction of Z-axis. Here the mass center of the base segment in fixed and
that of the tip segment is chosen as the key point to evaluate the scalability and bending
ability of the morphing nose cone. To investigate the effect of link flexibility on the
dynamic performance of the morphing nose cone, the simulation results of the morphing
nose cone with flexible links are compared with that of the rigid morphing nose cone.
Fig. 3.2. (a) and (b) shows position of the mass center in Y-direction and Z-direction
respectively.
Fig. 3.2. The positions of the mass center of the flexible and rigid morphing nose cone.
[4]

From the Fig. 3.2. it is seen that in time interval 0 to 0.5s, it extends and contracts in time
interval 0.5 to1s. Also, it can be seen that there is no deviation in Z-direction in time
interval 0 to 1s. The maximum extension and the minimum contraction positions of the
rigid nose cone are severally about 0.908m and 0.519m in Y-direction. In time interval 1
to 1.5s the nose cone extends along the position direction of Y axis and bends to the
negative direction of Z-axis synchronously. The Z-position is -0.083m when reaching the
maximum bending deformation. It is also found that the position curves of morphing nose
cone with rigid links and flexible links are completely coincident. This implies that the
link flexibility has less effect on position of the nose cone during the deformation process.

From Fig. 3.3. (a) and (b), it can be observed that the acceleration of the rigid nose cone
in the Y-direction changes irregularly, the maximum of which is 16.2m/s2 and the
acceleration is zero in Z-direction during the process of extension and contraction. When
the rigid nose cone extends and bends simultaneously, its minimum acceleration reaches
to -3.73m/s2 in Z-direction. The effect of link flexibility on the morphing nose cone can
cause high vibration when compared with the rigid morphing nose cone, which in turn
influence the motion stability and motion accuracy, which seriously reduces the dynamic
performance of the morphing nose cone.
 Fig. 3.3. The accelerations of the mass center of the flexible and rigid morphing nose
cone. [4]

3.3 THE EFFECTS OF LINK FLEXIBILITY ON THE DYNAMIC BEHAVIOR

For further investigation of dynamic behavior of morphing nose cone, the accelerations
of the mass center of the tip segment of the morphing nose cone with different elastic
modulus 50GPa, 71.71GPa and 80GPa of the flexible links were compared. The time-
frequency characteristics of the accelerations are analyzed. Fig. 3.4. and Fig. 3.5. show
the time-frequency transformation of the accelerations with elastic modulus 50GPa in the
Y-direction and Z-direction respectively. From Fig. 3.4. and Fig. 3.5., it is seen that the
domain of frequency bands of the accelerations in the Y-direction and Z-direction are
distributed between 0 and 50Hz. Mainly vibration in the Y- direction occurs between 0
to 0.5s, the time interval at which the nose cone extends. While in the Z-direction,
vibration occurs mainly between 1 to 1.5s, the time interval when the nose cone undergoes
bending deformation. The vibration energy of the acceleration in the Z direction at 0-1s
is small because the acceleration is zero during extension and contraction. However, the
frequencies and vibration energy vary with the change of elastic modulus. As shown in
Fig. 3.4. (a) and Fig. 3.4. (b), the vibration energy peak of the acceleration in the Y-
direction is 56.47, which is focused on the maximum frequency value of 38.19Hz.
Similarly, from Fig. 3.5. (a) and Fig. 3.5. (b), the vibration energy of the acceleration in
the Z-direction is mainly concentrated on the four frequencies of 47.55Hz, 37.28Hz,
26.14Hz and 10.42Hz with vibration energy values are 8.716, 7.348, 8.218 and 9.28
respectively.
Fig. 3.4. Time-frequency characteristics of acceleration in the Y-direction with 50 GPa
modulus of elasticity. [4]

Fig. 3.5. Time-frequency characteristics of acceleration in the Z-direction with 50 GPa

modulus of elasticity. [4]

The above time-frequency characteristics of acceleration was for modulus of elasticity of

50GPa. Similarly, to understand the changes for different modulus of elasticity, the
characteristic parameters of different elastic modulus for the links in the morphing nose
cone are shown in Table 3.4. From Table 3.4., the vibration energy peaks and
corresponding frequencies of the accelerations in the Y-direction decrease along with the
increase of elastic modulus. The vibration energy peaks of the accelerations in the Z-
direction firstly increase and then decrease, and the corresponding frequencies show the
same trend.
 Table 3.4. Characteristic parameters of different elastic modulus. [4]

Elastic
Vibration Frequency
modulus Direction Duration (s)
energy peak (Hz)
(GPa)
Y 56.47 38.19 0-0.5
50
Z 9.28 10.42 1-1.5
Y 45.52 33.71 0-0.5
71.71
Z 15.45 46.92 1-1.5
Y 45.28 32.26 0-0.5
80
Z 12.11 12.44 1-1.5

The results indicate that the link flexibility can lead to the appearance of the high
frequency components in the accelerations and the high-frequency energy decrease with
the increases of stiffness, which weakens the vibration of morphing nose cone.

3.4 MOTION CHARACTERISTIC ANALYSIS OF MORPHING NOSE CONE

3.4.1 Evaluation of deformation ability

For further clarity in design, deformation details of prototype made was also taken and
compared with the simulation results obtained so as to predict any uncertainties. For the
simulation model, the benchmark length L of the morphing nose cone is 0.554 m and the
mass center positions of the base segment in the Y-direction and Z-direction are 0.045m
and 0m respectively. So, the deformation in Y-direction ∆ly, the deformation in Z-
direction ∆lz and bending angle ∆α of the morphing nose cone can be calculated as shown
in Fig. 3.6. (h). The deformation sizes of the simulation and experiments are shown in
Table 3.5.

From Table 3.5, the extension ratios obtained experimentally is 20.76% while that
obtained from simulation is 63.90%, this is mainly due to the difficulty of synchronous
drive in experiment, which leads to the interference on the side with slower drive when
the bending angle reaches a certain value. Hence, the mechanism of morphing nose cone
is unable to extend to the maximum position in experiment, while the synchronous drive
can be set in simulation to obtain the maximum extension. However, the contraction ratios
and bending angles of the morphing nose cone are less affected by synchronous drive in
simulation and experiment, and thus the data agree well. The contraction ratios and the
bending angles of the simulation and experiment are 6.32%, 6.57%, 5.87° and 5.34°
respectively. Plus, small errors may be caused by friction, clearance collision and gravity
of the mechanism and so on in experiment. Here all values obtained from both experiment
and simulation are as per design requirements.

Fig. 3.6. The three phases of deformation process of the morphing nose cone. (a-c)
Deformation movement of honeybee abdomen. (d-f) Extension and bending motion of
the prototype. (h) Measurement of the deformation sizes. [4]
 Table 3.5. Deformation sizes of morphing nose cone. [4]

Simulation Experiment
Bending Bending
Phase L ∆lz Extension L ∆ly ∆lz Extension
∆ly (m) angle angle
(m) (m) ratio (m) (m) (m) ratio
(°) (°)
I 0.554 0.354 — 63.90% — 0.578 0.120 — 20.76% —
II 0.554 -0.035 — -6.32% — 0.578 -0.038 — -6.57% —
III 0.554 0.253 0.083 — 5.87 0.578 — — — 5.34

3.4.2 Dynamic performance of morphing nose cone

As it was early observed that the existence of flexible links will affect the motion accuracy
and motion stability. In order quantify the dynamic performance, relative error is
calculated.

𝜀 − 𝜀∗
∆𝜀 =
𝜀∗

where 𝜀 is the maximum absolute acceleration of the morphing nose cone with flexible
links, and 𝜀∗is the maximum absolute acceleration of the rigid morphing nose cone. So,
the relative errors ∆𝜀 can be calculated as Table 3.6.

Table 3.6. Relative errors of morphing nose cone. [4]

Type Maximum acceleration Maximum acceleration

2
of Y-direction (m/s ) of Z-direction (m/s2)
Flexible links 71.900 19.700
Rigid links 16.200 3.730
Relative errors 343.830% 428.150%

From the Table 3.6., relative error between the morphing nose cone with flexible links
and the rigid morphing nose cone in the Y-direction and Z-direction are 343.830% and
428.150% respectively. This illustrates that link flexibility can cause the drastic
oscillation of the accelerations. Then the dynamic performance is greatly reduced because
of the poor motion accuracy and stability during deformation. The actual morphing nose
cone is an extremely complex nonlinear system in the deformation process. Various
control methods such as the modern control algorithms of robust control, adaptive control
and the intelligent control algorithms of fuzzy control, neural network control, etc., can
be used to improve the dynamic performance of the morphing nose cone. Moreover, some
modification in the transmission mechanisms in the parallel mechanisms can be made to
decrease flexible links and the configuration of the morphing nose cone can be improved
to reduce aerodynamic force. Meanwhile, some new materials can be used for the
morphing nose cone to reduce the flexibility, increase heat resistance and improve bearing
load in future.
 CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSION

In this study, the movements of honeybee abdomen are investigated and found that its
segmental structure allows it to vary its geometry. Also, it was found that Z-S
intersegmental membranes not only connect the terga and sterna together, but also control
the deformation movement of honeybee abdomen to a unidirectional direction. Then a
profile structure of morphing nose cone was obtained by extracting from the contour of
honeybee abdomen. Further, a biomimetic skeleton structure of morphing nose cone
inspired by variable geometry mechanism of honeybee abdomen was designed. The
morphing nose cone could complete telescoping movement and bending deformation, and
further took effect on reducing the drag in the reentry stage and lowering the aerodynamic
heat in the high-speed gliding stage.

To study the deformation ability and dynamic characteristics of the designed morphing
nose cone, the results from simulation analysis by comparing the difference between the
morphing nose cone with flexible links and the rigid morphing nose cone was analyzed.
All the results found have met the design requirements of morphing nose cone. In
addition, the existence of link flexibility led to obvious high-frequency shake and
instability of the morphing nose cone during deformation, and therefore caused the poor
dynamic performance of the morphing nose cone.

The biomimetic skeleton structure of morphing nose cone provides a novel way for
aerospace vehicle to obtain optimal aerodynamic configuration in different flight
missions.
REFERENCES

[1]. Valasek. J (2012), Morphing Aerospace Vehicles and Structures, John Wiley & Sons,
First Edition.
[2]. Weisshaar. T. A. (2013), Morphing Aircraft Systems: Historical Perspectives and
Future Challenges, Journal of Aircraft, 50(2), 337–353.
[3]. Yue T. et al. (2017), Flight dynamic modeling and control for a telescopic wing
morphing aircraft via asymmetric wing morphing, Aerospace Science and
Technology, 70, 328–338.
[4]. Zhang et al. (2019), Biomimetic skeleton structure of morphing nose cone for
aerospace vehicle inspired by variable geometry mechanism of honeybee abdomen,
Aerospace Science and Technology.
[5]. Zhao J. et al. (2017), Design and analysis of biomimetic nose cone for morphing of
aerospace vehicle, Journal of Bionic Engineering, 14(2), 317-326.