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 Smart Materials and Structures

Smart Mater. Struct. 29 (2020) 015031 (11pp) https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-665X/ab5ad8

A flexible morphing wing by soft wing skin

actuation utilizing dielectric elastomer:
experiments and electro-aerodynamic model
Bo Li1,2 , Yong Cai1, Lei Jiang1, Lei Liu3, Zijie Zhao4 and Guimin Chen1
1
Shaanxi Province Key Laboratory for Intelligent Robots, School of Mechanical Engineering, Xi’an
Jiaotong University, Xi’an, 710049, People’s Republic of China
2
UAV Science and Technology Laboratory, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, 710072,
People’s Republic of China
3
School of Mechanical and Precision Instrument Engineer, Xi’an University of Technology, Xi’an,
710048, People’s Republic of China
4
National Key Laboratory of Transient Physics, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing
210094, People’s Republic of China

E-mail: liulei@xaut.edu.cn

Received 27 June 2019, revised 19 August 2019

Accepted for publication 22 November 2019
Published 10 December 2019

Abstract
The morphing wing has been studied for its advantage in tunable aerodynamics. In this paper, a
soft wing skin that utilizing dielectric elastomer is designed to actuate a rigid airfoil for morphing
performance. Quasi-linear and consistent actuation is achieved thanks to the silicone electrodes
and pure shear configuration. An electro-aerodynamics model is established, based on simulation
and multi-field coupling theory, where stability behavior is analyzed for stable deformation in the
morphing process. Experiments verify a large bending angle over 30° in the clockwise direction,
along with a blocking force exceeding 500 mN under 6500 V actuation.

Supplementary material for this article is available online

Keywords: dielectric elastomer, morphing wing, aeroelastic coupling, rigid-soft robot

(Some figures may appear in colour only in the online journal)

1. Introduction wing sweep. In the out-of-plane transformation category, the

chord and span-wise camber are changed.
During the development of science and technology, humans The airfoil adjustment category is the most noticeable,
have invented new machines to explore the world, and the where the wing profile is changed [4, 5]. The camber profile
aircraft is a typical example. As inspired by the bird, aircraft are of a conventional wing is fixed, and by the manipulation of
designed for fast flying-speed, long distance duration, and the various control surfaces its aerodynamic properties can be
adaptability. Among these features, the adaptable wing on the altered. Camber morphing has the potential of improving
aircraft, known as the morphing wing, has been a classic topic performance significantly, and among the morphing techni-
in aerospace engineering [1]. Morphing wing has the capability ques, the seamless wing morphing design can decrease drag,
of shape-changing during the flight to improve their perfor- reduces noise caused by gaps and the edges of flaps, and an
mance for different flight conditions [2]. There are diverse increased camber allows decreased air-speeds (hence noise)
alternations of morphing wings. According to the shape change while maintaining increased lift [6].
concepts, there are classified into three types: planform alter- A major component and challenge of morphing wing
nation, airfoil profile adjustment and out-of-plane transforma- design is the skin that covers seamlessly the morphing
tion [3]. In the planform alternation category, the wing area is structure. The requirements of the skin are contradictory in
manipulated to alter the resizing of its span, chord length and that the skin needs to undergo large deformation in the

0964-1726/20/015031+11$33.00 1 © 2019 IOP Publishing Ltd Printed in the UK

Smart Mater. Struct. 29 (2020) 015031 B Li et al

Figure 1. The flexible airfoil with DE wing skin (a) the design of the morphing airfoil with hinges. (b) The dielectric elastomer actuator as the
wing skin (c) the assembled morphing wing with the active wing skin.

direction of actuation, and yet provides a seamless aero- prototype of the morphing airfoil was manufactured and
dynamic surface. The structure of the skin should reduce the equipped with the artificial muscle wing skin. In section 3, the
force and power requirements in actuation and reduce the morphing characters on the chord-wise bending was mea-
impact of actuation on the rest of the wing structure. Studies sured to evaluate the curvature change, in terms of the angle
have been reviewed passive skin structures, where an active and blocking force. In section 4, the actuation and aero-
skin that responses intelligently upon stimulated is still under dynamic performance of the wing skin was analyzed based on
exploited in aerospace. In previous report, smart material of both electromechanical and aeroelastic dynamic coupling
shape memory alloy or polymer has been utilized as the model. The results are discussed, followed by a conclusion.
design of the wing. However, the low response speed has
challenges the performance for quick morphing [2, 7].
Recently, the dielectric elastomer (DE) has been studied 2. Design and fabrication of the morphing airfoil and
extensively as a new actuation material. In applications of wing skin
robotics and biomimetics [2, 6, 8], DE shows its capability of
muscle-like, fast actuation which is comparable with muscles 2.1. The flexible morphing airfoil
[7, 9, 10]. This potential is also exploited in aerospace. For
From the UIUC airfoil coordinates database, we select a
example, a DE-based antagonism actuator was mounted on a
typical type of Clark-Y as the airfoil in the paper. The
drone as to control the tail during the flying process [11].
mechanical design is layout in figure 1(a). Instead of using a
Also, a pair of flapping wings that use entirely the soft DE
whole rigid body, we designed flexible hinges and separated
materials has been verified, which used the novel bistable
the airfoil into three parts: the main body, the flexible units,
actuation strategy in soft machines for the first time [12]. and the tail. The flexible units are able to rotate, thanks to the
During the research of DE-based robotics, the nonlinearity in connection of two hinges in the middle part. At the surface of
materials and structure is a challenging issue. DE is highly the main body, four fixed points are designed where the
nonlinear in mechanics, as well as in the process electro- actuation skin shall be mounted later. The fix points can also
mechanical coupling. This adds difficulty for robotic control, be found at the tail surface.
especially under DE actuation. Therefore, in the current study,
we propose a design of morphing wing by separating the
2.2. Active wing skin using dielectric elastomer
wing skin of DE actuator and the rigid wing camber, and
consequently quasi linear and consistence performance is Dielectric elastomer is soft dielectric, usually in the shape of
obtained. The rest of the paper is organized as follows. In thin film, and is capable of generating reversible area
section 2, DE actuator was designed, fabricated and used as expansion strain over 100% when subject to voltage. Due to
the seamless skin to replace the conventional slotted flap. A the compliance, dielectric elastomer-based actuator features

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Smart Mater. Struct. 29 (2020) 015031 B Li et al

Figure 2. The experiments for characterization. (a) The experiments set up is as follows: high voltage is generated and amplified, then applied
on the active wing. Under the wing skin actuation, the airfoil bends where the bending angles and blocking forces were recorded. (b) The
performance of the bending of the airfoil under actuation.

lightweight, noiseless actuation and extreme stretchability the prestretches. Stiff fiber strips (PET) were attached to the
[13]. It is important to prestretch the dielectric elastomer prior surface of DE actuator to maintain the pure shear and also
to voltage activation, since the prestretch contributes to served the connection to mount on the airfoil in the slots. To
improved stability, enhanced breakdown strength [14, 15]. ensure the actuation performance, difference number of layers
According to the previous conclusion, we employed the pure {2, 3, 4} of DE actuator were stacked to the airfoil, as to drive
shear design for DE actuation as the active wing skin [16–19]. the bending for morphing purpose. For a single layer DEA,
In the pure shear, the surface of dielectric elastomer is trussed the actuator is of length 35 mm, width 50 mm and thickness
by stiff fibers in parallel. Without fibers, during the voltage- of 0.1625 mm. The sample of the airfoil with DE wing skin
actuated elongation, the dielectric elastomer may neck. was assembled in figure 1(c).
Owing to the constrained in the horizontal direction, the di-
electric elastomer extends vertically only.
3. The experimental characterization on the
2.3. Fabrication and assembly actuation of active wing skin

The airfoil was manufactured by 3D printing technology of

3.1. Experimental setup
PLA epoxy. The dielectric elastomer actuator was fabricated
following the procedures in figure 1(b). Two components of We evaluated the performance of the airfoil by two indexes:
Conductive electrode (ELASTOSIL 3162/AB from Wacker) the bending angle and the blocking force. Two parameters are
was mixed and cured on top and bottom surface of the selected as the variables in the active wing skin: the prestretch
stretched dielectric film (VHB 4905 from 3 M), at the temp- ratio of DE, and the layer number of DE. The important
erature of 90 °C for 20 min, then an electrode-sandwiched of prestretch has been evidently demonstrated both in theory
dielectric elastomer was obtained as an actuator that preserved and experiments, and the conclusions suggest a moderate

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Smart Mater. Struct. 29 (2020) 015031 B Li et al

Figure 3. The snapshot of the airfoil with voltage-actuated wing skin. The scale bar is 10 mm.

stretching prior to voltage shall be sufficient to suppress its position in a quasi-linear route via the active wing skin. In
wrinkle and increase the stroke [15]. Here we prescribe the figure 5, the force sensor was place at the tail with 50 mm
prestretch in equal bi-axial directions [13]. Another variable is away from the first linkage, when the airfoil was at a lever
the layer number of the DE actuation as a wing skin. Due to state. The slopes are defined as the ratio of angle or force over
low elastic modulus, the output force of a single layer DE is each voltage increment and they are plotted in figure 6 at
weak, and multi-layered DE actuator has been developed by different number of layers and prestretches.
stacking or folding [20]. In the current design, to actuate the VHB films as dielectric elastomer has been considered
airfoil versus the gravity and aerodynamics, we proposed 2, 3, with a disadvantage for its nonlinear actuation during the
4 layered DE for the wing skin. For each combination of electromechanical coupling, where its voltage-stretch relation
variables, 3 samples were tested, with the mean value cal- is nonlinear, and sometimes has instability. But in this design,
culated for evaluation. from figures 4–6, a quasi-linear output in bending angle and
Figure 2(a) illustrates the experimental setup. The volt- force is achieved. Also the instability that used to hinders its
age, from the signal generator (Agilent, No. 6811B), was actuation is suppressed, showing a stable elongation in
amplified (Trek Amplifier, No. 610E) and applied to the actuator and bending in the morphing wing. We explain this
electrodes, in terms of a step change of 100 V per 60 s, until
by two contributions. First, it is due to the pure shear design
the electrical breakdown. The voltage-activated stretches were
that offers the stabilization which has been evidently studied;
recorded in the computer using the camera (Carnon, EOS
secondly, the covered electrode is not liquid but stretchable
5D), and the bending angle is calculated bymeasuring the
solid, so that the actuation stroke is the strain from both the
center line of the airfoil tail. A force sensor (ZNLBM series)
dielectric elastomer and the electrode. A stiffer electrode
was employed to measure blocking force. In figure 2(b), the
offers the suppressing the viscoelasticity and the improve-
bending mechanism is sketched. Figure 3 displays the process
of the bending with the maximum attaining angle at 6500 V. ment of stiffness for resisting the pull-in stress, which has
The process was also recorded and provide in a video in the been proved in other solid electrodes [21, 22]. We use the
supplementary material is available online at stacks.iop.org/ silicone+carbon electrode to overcome the inconvenience
SMS/29/015031/mmedia. of carbon grease. Another significance is the consistency in
performance. As can be found in the results in figures 4 and 5,
the error bars are relatively small. This is because the pre-
3.2. Experimental results
stretches are maintained by the truss fibers and the solid
Figures 4 and 5 plot the result of the bending angle/blocking electrodes who both have good maintenance durability, so
force versus voltage. It can be noticed that this airfoil can alter that little performance difference is introduced.

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Smart Mater. Struct. 29 (2020) 015031 B Li et al

Figure 4. The bending angle of the airfoil under different number of layer and prestretches.

4. Electro-aeroelastic coupling in the morphing wing on and inside the DE wing skin were obtained in figure 8. It
can be noticed that under the prescribed wind velocity the air
In order to understand the experimental observation, we next pressure is almost uniformed either on the outside surface or
establish a theoretical framework to characterize the electro- inside the skins. The outside pressure is within the range of
aeroelastic coupling. −8.158×10−1 Pa and −3.7×10−1 Pa, at the direction of
normal to the actuator skin. Thus, in the next physical mod-
eling, we couple the aeroelastic pressure to the electro-
4.1. Simulation of the aeroelasttic dynamics mechanical model of the active wing skin.
Figures 7 and 8 simulate the aeroelastic pressure on the
morphing wing. In ANSYS WORKBENCH 17.0, the 3D
4.2. Multi-field coupling model for the DE active wing skin
model was created by setting the body as PVC material,
setting the DE wing skin as Yeoh and prony relaxation We establish the electromechanical model to couple the
mechanics model. DE wing skin was set to be bonded on the aeroelastic pressure at the surface of the wing skin on a single
airfoil body. The model was then meshed by sweeping actuator. With reference to figure 9 and the fabrication pro-
method. The fluid field was meshed by automatic method, cess, considering a piece of dielectric elastomer sheet of
was condense mesh size on the fluid-solid interface. Then we original dimensions of l1 ´ l2 ´ h, we first stretch the sheet to
set the fluid as air at 25 °C and a pressure of 1 bar using the the dimensions of L1 ´ L 2 ´ H and maintain the prestretch
k-Episilon turbulence. by attaching stiff fibers to maintain the membrane in tension
Four values of velocity were prescribed (3, 10, 15, as to satisfy the pure-shear. Consequently, the confinements
20 m s−1), and the corresponding pressure and its distribution generate internal force of P ¢. The dielectric elastomer is then

5
Smart Mater. Struct. 29 (2020) 015031 B Li et al

Figure 5. The blocking force of the airfoil under different number of layer and prestretches.

Table 1. The material parameter of the DE actuator as wing skin.

Parameters Value (unit) Note

L1 50 (mm) The original length of skin
L2 35 (mm) The original width of skin
H Two layers: 275 (μm) The original thickness of skin
Three layers:387.5 (μm)
Four layers:500 (μm)
m 1.035 (MPa) The shear modulus of dielectric elastomer with the silicone electrodes
e 4.7 The relative permittivity of dielectric elastomer

mounted on the airfoil where the boundary force is P in the energy of the thermodynamics system changes by dY. Thus:
direction 1. We apply a voltage F, so the dielectric elastomer
d Y = dF - PdL1 - P¢dL 2 - l2 dP¢ - FdQ. (1 )
deforms to the current dimensions of l1 L1 ´ L 2 ´ l3 H with
accumulated charges Q on both surfaces. Note here, without
Define the specific Helmholtz free energy by Wˆ =
losing generality, we first idealize the horizontal deformation
F / (l1 l2 h ), stretches by, l2 = L 2 /l2, and l3 = H /h, true
is maintained by the fibers at a constant P ¢ for prestretch. The
stresses by s1 = P / (L 2 H ) and s2 = P ¢ / (L1 H ), electric field
assumption shall be discussed in the analysis that follows.
by E = F/H, and electric displacement by D = Q/ (L1 L 2 ).
The battery, the load, the fibers and the elastomer constitute
The amount of charge on either surface relates to the electric
a thermodynamic system. During electromechanical deforma-
displacement by Q = DL1 L 2, so the variation of the charge is:
tion, when the in-plane dimensions increase by dL1 and dL 2, the
thickness reduces by dh, and the charge increase by dQ the free dQ = L1L 2 dD + DL1dL 2 + DL 2 dL1. (2 )

6
Smart Mater. Struct. 29 (2020) 015031 B Li et al

Figure 6. The slope of (top) the voltage versus bending angle and (bottom) the voltage versus blocking force

Figure 7. The aerodynamic simulation of the airfoil with DE wing (a) the model and mesh (b) the pressure distribution.

The elastomer is taken to be incompressible, where L1 L 2 L 3 = Wˆ (l1, l2, D), as established in the nonlinear field theory. So
l1 l2 l3 or l1 l2 l3 = 1. This enable us to regard l1 and l2 as that:
independent variables, so that dl3 = - l1-2 l-2 1 dl1 - l-2 2 l1-1 dl2.
Divide both sides of equation (1) by the volume, l1 l2 h, and dY ⎛ ¶Wˆ (l1, l2 , D) ⎞
=⎜ - (s1 + DE ) l1-1⎟ dl1
using equation (S2), we obtain the free energy change in the l1l2 h ⎝ ¶l1 ⎠
thermodynamic system: ⎛ ¶Wˆ (l1, l2 , D) ⎞
dY +⎜ - (s2 + DE ) l- 2 ⎟ dl2
1
= dWˆ - (s1 + DE ) l1-1dl1 ⎝ ¶l2 ⎠
l1l2 h
⎛ ¶Wˆ (l1, l2 , D) ⎞
- (s2 + DE ) l-
2 dl2 - EdD.
1
(3 ) +⎜ - E ⎟ dD. (4 )
⎝ ¶D ⎠

As a material model, the Helmholtz free energy is taken Thermodynamics indicates the systems is in equilibrium
to be a function of the three independent variables, only if the free energy change is minimum, dY = 0, for any

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Smart Mater. Struct. 29 (2020) 015031 B Li et al

Figure 8. Aerodynamics and the pressure distribution of the airfoil under different wind speed. (a.1)–(a.4) The pressure outside the air foil.
(b.1)–(b.4) The pressure outside the DEA. (c.1)–(a.4) The pressure inside the structure.

Figure 9. Mechanics of the dielectric elastomer. The material is prestretched first from (a) its original dimensions, with (b) stiff fibers to
maintain the prestretch. (c) Subject to a voltage and mechanical load, the fiber trussed-dielectric elastomer deforms to the current dimensions.
(d) The stress at the equilibrium state. Under a hydro-static stress of the same value of prestretch, the lateral prestrech stress can be expressed
in the vertical direction.

change is:
arbitrary and independent variations dl1, dl2 and dD. We dY ⎛ ¶Wˆ (l1, l2 , D) ⎞
first assume the horizontal stretch being constrained by the =⎜ - (s1 + DE ) l1-1⎟ dl1
l1l2 h ⎝ ¶l1 ⎠
fibers at a constant level l2, that is dl2 = 0. Therefore the
⎛ ¶Wˆ (l1, l2 , D) ⎞
related production, second item on the right-hand side of +⎜ - E ⎟ dD. (5 )
equation (4) vanishes, implying the current free energy ⎝ ¶D ⎠

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Smart Mater. Struct. 29 (2020) 015031 B Li et al

item is the linear electrostatic energy in dielectric, with e

being the permittivity. Therefore, the first set of equilibrium
condition is specialized to the governing equation as:
⎛ F ⎞2 P
(l1l2 )2 ⎜
⎜ ⎟⎟ = (l12 - l1-2 l-
2 ) - l1
2
. (8 )
⎝ h m/e ⎠ ml 2 h

Coupled with the aeroelastic pressure Paero obtained from

the simulation, the equation is then modified as
⎛ F ⎞2 P P
(l1l2 )2 ⎜
⎜ ⎟⎟ + aero = (l12 - l1-2 l-
2 ) - l1
2
.
⎝ h m/e ⎠ m ml 2 h
(9 )
We measured the mechanical property of the DEA by unixail
stretching, and obtained the material parameters and geometry
in table 1.
The model is validate with the actuation of single DEA
without the air pressure. In figure 10 The new DEA has linear
mechanical property in the laminated silicone electrode/VHB
film/laminated silicone electrode structure. The theoretical
model is validated through the experiments on the actuation
of three samples with {4×4} prestretch using the same
experimental setup. Good coincidence is obtained, and the
variation between the experimental result and theoretical
results is due to the neglecting of the fibers occupation in the
surface. Next, figure 11 plots the result of actuation under a
negative pressure (normalized at −10). By stacking 2 layers
of DE wing skin, in figures 11(a) and (b), the actuation of DE
under voltage is vulnerable to the aerodynamic pressure, and
the stretch retracts to small value domains, which means the
Figure 10. Experimental characterization of the DEA (a) the
airfoil fails to bend clockwise as expected but in the coun-
mechanical performance (b) the actuation versus theoretical
calculation. terclockwise direction. This behavior can be suppressed by
two factor. One is to the increase of the level of prestretch as
in figures 11(c) and (d) to preserve more mechanical force to
dominate the aerodynamic pressure. Another route is to
Then we obtain the first set of equations for equilibrium
increase the number of skin layer, as can be noticed in
state:
figures 11(e) and (f), with more actuation driving force in
¶Wˆ (l1, l2 , D) parallel, the airfoil can resist the aerodynamic pressure for on-
s1 + ED = l1 ;
¶l1 demand morphing.
¶Wˆ (l1, l2 , D)
E= . (6 )
¶D
5. Conclusion
In this equation, we define stress direction is vertical to the
elastomer plane. Due to the material incompressiblity, under In this paper, a flexible morphing wing is designed and rea-
a hydro-static stress of the same value of prestretch, the lized by actuating the rigid airfoil via dielectric elastomer
lateral prestrech stress can be expressed in the vertical actuator as soft wing skin. Dielectric elastomer offers large
direction, as shown in the figure 9(d). and quick actuation with reduced mechanical weight. Owing
We now employ a specific free energy function form for to the design of pure shear configuration and to the elastic
linear dielectrics with hyper-elasticity: electrode in the actuator, quasi-linear actuation with little in-
m consistence is obtained, which is an advance for the soft
Wˆ (l1, l2 , D) = (l12 + l 22 + l1-2 l-
2 - 3)
2
actuator. A large bending angle over 30° is achieved at the
2
1 2 room condition. Using the simulation of aerodynamics, a
+ D. (7 ) theoretical model that couples electromechanical actuation
2e
and fluid-solid interaction is established, and the stability
The first item on the right-and side of equation (7) is the Gent performance is studied. This study gives a preliminary result
strain energy model, with m being shear modulus. The second on actuating rigid structure via a soft actuator. Though in real

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Smart Mater. Struct. 29 (2020) 015031 B Li et al

Figure 11. Electromechanical actuation of DE wing skin with negative aero pressure (normalized at −10) at three prestretches and three type
of layer number. (a) And (b) two layers; (c) and (d) three layers; (e) and (f) four layers.

condition, the air pressure is changing dynamically, and a [4] Yu K, Yin W, Sun S, Liu Y and Leng J 2009 Design and
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bending angle shall be further studied and optimized to SPIE 7290 72900S
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