LeadingEdgeDevice: DroopNose - or more general: shape-variable control surfaces

[raedma]

We are possibly facing the task of modeling a flexible droop nose leading edge device on a wing, e.g. see this presentation.

I would define the problem as modeling a shape-variable nose shape in front of the wingbox front-most-spar. This droop nose may possibly have different deployment settings, similar to the path of an explicit moveable part.

In my opinion the task can be generalized to a

• shape-variable control surface
• based on the airfoil shape
• on the leading or trailing edge
• with a discrete span-wise beginning and end
• outside of the wing-box (so in front of the front-most and behind the rear-most spar)
• with an internal kinematic (which is out-of-scope for the structural modeling I am facing, but should be integrated in the thought-process I guess)
• with a gap-free suction side but possibly gaps on the pressure side of the airfoil (gaps may be neglected, see image
  

Having a look at the current CPACS definition of leading edge devices I don't see a possibility to define this problem since the current implementation, equivalent to trailingEdgeDevice element, expects an explicit moveable-body that is connected to the wing or the track with some kind of kinematic but otherwise detached from the wing-box body.

I do see some possible solution:

• Define a discrete flexible control surface element
• Define the shape
  • of the overall wing for different deployment settings as separate wing airfoils
  • or explicitely as a tangent continuous spline/nurb