Wing camber variation of an autonomous underwater glider

Autonomous gliders have been used extensively in recent years to collect oceanographic data throughout the world’s oceans. Current gliders have an endurance of up to one year, but still cannot complete longer trips such as crossing the Indian Ocean Basin or circumnavigating Antarctica. In order to reduce the energy used to trim a notional glider and thus improve glider endurance and range, a thermocline activated shape memory alloy (SMA) actuated variable camber wing was designed for legacy class gliders. The variable camber wing (VCW) was analyzed using a user material subroutine (UMAT) in Abaqus FEA. Finite element analysis shows a NACA 16006 based wing with SMA wires implanted from 50%-90% chord is capable of changing camber +/-4°. Performance modeling shows that the energy needed to move masses in order to trim the vehicle can be reduced by 20.7% by implementing this camber change. Furthermore, the trim energy can be virtually eliminated by also moving the wing aft by 7.25% of the vehicle length.