The state of the art as practiced by a handful of aerofoil designers is discussed. The methods used, both theoretical and experimental, are described. Aerofoil/application design integration and expansion of the design envelope to lower and higher Reynolds numbers are illustrated by examples, including the slotted, natural-laminar-flow aerofoil.

This work presents a computational framework for the optimisation of various aspects of rotor blades. The proposed method employs CFD combined with artificial neural networks, employed as metamodels, and optimisation methods based on genetic algorithms. To demonstrate this approach, two examples have been used, one is the optimal selection of 4- and 5-digit NACA aerofoils for rotor sections and the other is the optimisation of linear blade twist for rotors in hover. For each case, an objective function was created and the meta-model was subsequently used to evaluate this objective function during the optimisation process. The obtained results agree with real world design examples and theoretical predictions. For the selected cases, the artificial neural network was found to perform adequately though the results required a substantial amount of data for training. The genetic algorithm was found to be very effective in identifying a set of near-optimal parameters. The main CPU cost was associated with the population of the database necessary for the meta-models and this task required CFD computations based on the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations. The framework is general enough to allow for several design or optimisation tasks to be carried out and it is based on open-source code made available by the authors.

Classic flight control systems are still widely used in the industry because of acquired experience and good understanding of their structure. Nevertheless, with more stringent constraints, it becomes difficult to easily fulfil all the criteria with these classic control laws. On the other hand, modern methods can handle many constraints but fail to produce low order controllers. The following methodology proposed in this paper addresses both classic and modern flight control issues, to offer a solution that leverages the strengths of both approaches. First, an H∞ synthesis is performed in order to get controllers which satisfy handling qualities and are robust with respect to mass and centre of gravity variations. These controllers are then reduced and structured by using robust modal control techniques. In conclusion, a self-scheduling technique is described that will schedule these controllers over the entire flight envelope.

This paper deals with the design and implementation of the nonlinear control algorithm for the attitude tracking of a four-rotor helicopter known as quadrotor. The choice of this algorithm, which is based on the Backstepping sliding mode technique with adaptive gain, was justified by the fact that it ensures robustness with respect to modelling errors and external disturbances while reducing the chattering phenomenon caused by the sign function in the first order sliding mode based controllers with fixed gains. In order to show the effectiveness of the controller, experimental tests were carried out on a quadrotor. The obtained results show good performance of the proposed controller in terms of stabilisation, tracking and robustness.

An experimental study has been carried out to understand jet flow development from plain and grooved rectangular nozzles of aspect ratio 2:1 using two-component hotwire anemometry. Grooves of square configuration (side 4mm) and length 5mm were introduced in the (i) minor-axis, (ii) major-axis and, (iii) in both minor- and major-axes directions. The equivalent diameter of the plain rectangular nozzle is 37·5mm. Studies were carried out for a nominal jet exit velocity of 20ms−1 and for Reynolds number based on equivalent diameter of 54,000. The introduction of grooves in either plane does not show any influence on the potential-core length but results in faster jet-decay thereafter. It is observed that the grooves when introduced in minor-axis direction inhibit the jet growth in that plane while promoting the jet growth along major-axis plane and hence, delays the phenomena of axis-switching. However when introduced in major-axis direction, the grooves promote jet growth along major-axis plane while inhibiting jet-growth in minor-axis plane. Cross-sectional contours of mean-velocity suggest that the grooves modify the process of overall jet development significantly in the plane in which they are introduced relative to the plain jet and hence, significantly affect the axis-switching location in each case.