Aerospace, Volume 2, Issue 2 (June 2015) – 11 articles , Pages 135-375

A shock wave impact study on open and closed cell foam obstacles was completed to assess attenuation effects with respect to different front face geometries of the foam obstacles. Five different types of geometries were investigated, while keeping the mass of the foam obstacle constant. The front face, i.e., the side where the incident shock wave impacts, were cut in geometries with one, two, three or four convergent shapes, and the results were compared to a foam block with a flat front face. Results were obtained by pressure sensors located upstream and downstream of the foam obstacle, in addition to high-speed schlieren photography. Results from the experiments show no significant difference between the five geometries, nor the two types of foam. Full article

Multirotor is the umbrella term for the family of unmanned aircraft, which include the quadrotor, hexarotor and other vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft that employ multiple main rotors for lift and control. Development and testing of novel multirotor designs has been aided by the proliferation of 3D printing and inexpensive flight controllers and components. Different multirotor configurations exhibit specific strengths, while presenting unique challenges with regards to design and control. This article highlights the primary differences between three multirotor platforms: a quadrotor; a fully-actuated hexarotor; and an octorotor. Each platform is modelled and then controlled using non-linear dynamic inversion. The differences in dynamics, control and performance are then discussed. Full article

An Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) has been developed which is based on an aerodynamically functionalized planar wideband antenna. The antenna utilizes a planar circular dipole metallization scheme. The aerodynamic structure implements a planform similar to the Nutball flier, a hobbyist flight architecture. The resulting codesign achieved a large impedance bandwidth defined by a voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR) less than 2 from 100 MHz to over 2 GHz and omnidirectional dipole-like radiation patterns at the lower frequency region and more directional patterns at higher frequencies. Full article

This numerical study focuses on the fire phenomenology associated with the presence of a composite-type aircraft immersed, at one particular location and orientation, within a large aviation-fuel fire in a moving fluid medium. An extension of the eddy dissipation concept is incorporated, allowing one to investigate the roles of the wind speed and its direction on the fire growth, heat flux distribution and smoke products, such as carbon monoxide and soot. The predicted flame shape compares well with the measurements for an intermediate-scale fire. The outcome of the study is interesting, and the interaction model between turbulence and combustion is indeed adequate. The prediction indicates that interaction between the large object and fire environment combined with the influence of wind conditions dramatically affects the continuous flame shape. The increase of the wind speed results in an alteration of the distribution of the incident heat fluxes to the engulfed fuselage skin for a case where the fire and fuselage are of comparable size. The highest heat flux occurs on the windward side of the fuselage for the low and medium winds, but on the leeward side of the fuselage for the high wind. The peak in heat flux to the medium or high wind is almost equal in magnitude, but about a factor four increase of that to the low wind. Full article

In this paper, an ornithopter prototype that mimics the flapping motion of bird flight is developed, and the lift and thrust generation characteristics of different wing designs are evaluated. This project focused on the spar arrangement and material used for the wings that could achieves improved performance. Various lift and thrust measurement techniques are explored and evaluated. Various wings of insects and birds were evaluated to understand how these natural flyers with flapping wings are able to produce sufficient lift to fly. The differences in the flapping aerodynamics were also detailed. Experiments on different wing designs and materials were conducted and a paramount wing was built for a test flight. The first prototype has a length of 46.5 cm, wing span of 88 cm, and weighs 161 g. A mechanism which produced a flapping motion was fabricated and designed to create flapping flight. The flapping flight was produced by using a single motor and a flexible and light wing structure. A force balance made of load cell was then designed to measure the thrust and lift force of the ornithopter. Three sets of wings varying flexibility were fabricated, therefore lift and thrust measurements were acquired from each different set of wings. The lift will be measured in ten cycles computing the average lift and frequency in three different speeds or frequencies (slow, medium and fast). The thrust measurement was measure likewise but in two cycles only. Several observations were made regarding the behavior of flexible flapping wings that should aid in the design of future flexible flapping wing vehicles. The wings angle or phase characteristic were analyze too and studied. The final ornithopter prototype weighs only 160 g, has a wing span of 88.5 cm, that could flap at a maximum flapping frequency of 3.869 Hz, and produce a maximum thrust and lift of about 0.719 and 0.264 N respectively. Next, we proposed resonance type flapping wing utilizes the near resonance phenomenon of a two-degree of freedom elastic system, that is, the wing is supported by the springs for flapping and feathering motions. Being oscillated close to the resonance frequency of the system, only by the torque in flapping motion, the amplitude gained is a few times higher than that of normal case. The first prototype was made from acrylic using a laser cutting machine. The wings were made up of carbon rods and kite material Ripstop. First test showed that the wings were too heavy for the mechanism to work. The third prototype was a smaller single gear crank design which was fabricated using a 3D printer. Initial test proved that the second prototype could withstand the high frequency flapping and near resonance amplitude as designed. With remote control, the third prototype was able to take off, climb, cruise and land in flapping mode successfully. Full article

Unmanned aircraft must be characterized by a level of safety, similar to that of manned aircraft, when performing flights over densely populated areas. Dangerous situations or emergencies are frequently connected with the necessity to change the profiles and parameters of a flight as well as the flight plans. The aim of this work is to present the methods used to determine an Unmanned Aircraft System’s (UAS) flight profile after a dangerous situation or emergency occurs. The analysis was limited to the possibility of an engine system emergency and further flight continuing along a trajectory of which the shape depends on the type of the emergency. The suggested method also enables the determination of an optimal flying trajectory, based on the territory of a special protection zone (for example, large populated areas), in the case of an emergency that would disable continuation of the performed task. The method used in this work allows researchers, in a simplified way, to solve a variation task using the Ritz–Galerkin method, consisting of an approximate solution of the boundary value problem to determine the optimal flight path. The worked out method can become an element of the on-board system supporting UAS flight control. Full article

Research on shock wave mitigation in channels has been a topic of much attention in the shock wave community. One approach to attenuate an incident shock wave is to use obstacles of various geometries arranged in different patterns. This work is inspired by the study from Chaudhuri et al. (2013), in which cylinders, squares and triangles placed in staggered and non-staggered subsequent columns were used to attenuate a planar incident shock wave. Here, we present numerical simulations using a different obstacle pattern. Instead of using a matrix of obstacles, an arrangement of square or cylindrical obstacles placed along a logarithmic spiral curve is investigated, which is motivated by our previous work on shock focusing using logarithmic spirals. Results show that obstacles placed along a logarithmic spiral can delay both the transmitted and the reflected shock wave. For different incident shock Mach numbers, away from the logarithmic spiral design Mach number, this shape is effective to either delay the transmitted or the reflected shock wave. Results also confirm that the degree of attenuation depends on the obstacle shape, effective flow area and obstacle arrangement, much like other obstacle configurations. Full article

The aerospace community is planning for growth in Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) funding and research opportunities. The premise that UAS will revolutionize aerospace appears to be unfolding based on current trends. There is also an anticipation of an increasing number of new platforms and research investment, which is likely but must be analysed carefully to determine where the opportunities lie. This paper draws on the state of technology, history and systems engineering. We explore what aspects of UAS will be the result of aerospace science advances and what aspects will be incremental engineering and systems integration. It becomes apparent that, for academia, the largest opportunities may exist in small and micro UAS domain due to the novelty of aerospace engineering on a small scale. Full article

This study addresses the flight-path planning problem for multirotor aerial vehicles (AVs). We consider the specific features and requirements of real-time flight-path planning and develop a rapidly-exploring random tree (RRT) algorithm to determine a preliminary flight path in three-dimensional space. Since the path obtained by the RRT may not be optimal due to the existence of redundant waypoints. To reduce the cost of energy during AV’s flight, the excessive waypoints need to be refined. We revise the A-star algorithm by adopting the heading of the AV as the key indices while calculating the cost. Bezier curves are finally proposed to smooth the flight path, making it applicable for real-world flight. Full article

This paper presents a semi-analytical trajectory planning method for quadrotor UAVs. These trajectories are analytically defined, are constant in speed and sub-optimal with respect to a weighted quadratic cost function of the translational and angular velocities. A technique for concatenating the trajectories into multi-segment paths is demonstrated. These paths are smooth to the first derivative of the translational position and pass through defined waypoints. A method for detecting potential collisions by discretizing the path into a coarse mesh before using a numerical optimiser to determine the point of the path closest to the obstacle is presented. This hybrid method reduces the computation time when compared to discretizing the trajectory into a fine mesh and calculating the minimum distance. A tracking controller is defined and used to show that the paths are dynamically feasible and the typical magnitudes of the controller inputs required to fly them. Full article

This paper presents an investigation into the gust response and wing structure load alleviation of a 200-seater aircraft by employing a passive twist wingtip (PTWT). The research was divided into three stages. The first stage was the design and analysis of the baseline aircraft, including aerodynamic analysis, structural design using the finite element (FE) method and flutter analysis to meet the design requirements. Dynamic response analysis of the aircraft to discrete (one-cosin) gust was also performed in a range of gust radiances specified in the airworthiness standards. In the second stage, a PTWT of a length of 1.13 m was designed with the key parameters determined based on design constraints and, in particular, the aeroelastic stability and gust response. Subsequent gust response analysis was performed to evaluate the effectiveness of the PTWT for gust alleviation. The results show that the PTWT produced a significant reduction of gust-induced wingtip deflection by 21% and the bending moment at the wing root by 14% in the most critical flight case. In the third stage, effort was made to study the interaction and influence of the PTWT on the symmetric and unsymmetrical manoeuvring of the aircraft when ailerons were in operation. The results show the that PTWT influence with a reduction of the aircraft normal velocity and heave motion by 1.7% and 3%, respectively, is negligible. However, the PTWT influence on the aircraft roll moment with a 20.5% reduction is significant. A locking system is therefore required in such a manoeuvring condition. The investigation has shown that the PTWT is an effective means for gust alleviation and, therefore, has potential for large aircraft application. Full article