Abstract:In recent years, morphing aircrafts, which is able to improve the lift-drag characteristics of the aircraft by changing wingspans and aspect ratios, has become a popular research issue around the world. However, the aeroelastic problem is still a bottleneck for the development of the morphing wing. Therefore, it is necessary to calculate the aerodynamic forces of morphing aircrafts by combining with the particular deformable structures and analyse the dynamic characteristics of the morphing aircrafts. Through this way, we will promote the development of the aerodynamic calculation in the morphing aircrafts and related researches fields. In this paper, the aerodynamics of a Z-type morphing wing in the subsonic air flow are further promoted and the nonlinear dynamic analysis of the Z-type morphing wing is conducted. Under the flow condition of ideal incompressible fluid, the thin airfoil theory is applied to calculate the effects of the mean camber line. Based on the KuttaJoukowski lift theorem, the steady aerodynamic lift on the Z-type morphing wing is derived by the analytic formulation. The Z-type wing are considered as three carbon fiber composite laminated plates connected with the hinges. Based on Hamilton′s principle, the nonlinear partial differential governing equations of motion for the Ztype folding wing are established subjected to the aerodynamic force in subsonic air flow, and the modeshape functions are obtained with the boundary conditions of the Z-type wing structure. Then, the Galerkin method is used to transform the partial differential equation into nonlinear ordinary differential equations with rotation angle. Numerical simulations are also performed for the nonlinear dynamic responses of the Z-type folding wing subjected to the aerodynamic force, and the influence of folding angles on the stability of the wing are then analyzed.