Issued patent
Elastic Shape Morphing of Ultra-Light Structures by Programmable Assembly
An issued NASA patent from the Technology Transfer catalog.
About this technology
Overview
Aerostructure parts made from ultra-light materials, such as a lattice covered by a skin, present an opportunity to dramatically increase the efficiency of load bearing aerostructures. NASA Ames Research Center has been developing lighter-than-air vehicle and structure concepts using octahedral unit cells called voxels that are the building blocks for creating larger aerostructures. This novel addition to the family of technologies introduces interface parts to connect a skin to a voxel substructure. The skin is designed to transfer aerodynamic pressure loads directly to the substructure through the interface parts. The parts can be tuned to achieve aerodynamic efficiency gains through substructure programmability. The substructure can be morphed by aeroelastic tuning to increase aerodynamic efficiency. Tuning the substructure’s torsional stiffness response can also program the anisotropic substructure stiffness to promote tip twist under aerodynamic loads.