Effect of realistic distributed loads on the bi-stable behavior of a pre-stressed aileron

We study both experimentally and numerically the aeroelastic response of a pre-stressed curved aileron in a high Reynolds number flow undisturbed at infinity. The structure is designed to have a peculiar nonlinear behavior. Specifically, the aileron has only one stable equilibrium when the external forces are vanishing, but it is bistable when distributed aerodynamic loads are applied. Hence, for sufficiently high fluid velocities, another equilibrium branch is possible. We test a prototype of such an aileron in a wind tunnel. A sudden change (snap) of the shell configuration is observed when the fluid velocity exceeds a critical threshold: the snapped configuration is characterized by sensibly lower drag. However, when the velocity is reduced to zero, the structure recovers its initial shape. A similar nonlinear behavior can have important applications for drag-reduction strategies since the transition between a bluff body-like and a slender body-like behavior is controlled by the free-stream fluid velocity and does not require any external actuation.