The eddy dissipation model (EDM) is analysed with respect to the ability to address the turbulence–combustion interaction process inside hydrogen-fuelled scramjet engines designed to operate at high Mach numbers (≈7–12). The aim is to identify the most appropriate strategy for the use of the model and the calibration of the modelling constants for future design purposes. To this end, three hydrogen-fuelled experimental scramjet configurations with different fuel injection approaches are studied numerically. The first case consists of parallel fuel injection and it is shown that relying on estimates of ignition delay from a 1D kinetics program can greatly improve the effectiveness of the EDM. This was achieved through a proposed zonal approach. The second case considers fuel injection behind a strut. Here the EDM predicts two reacting layers along the domain which is in agreement with experimental temperature profiles close to the point of injection but not the case any more at the downstream end of the test section. The first two scramjet test cases demonstrated that the kinetic limit, which can be applied to the EDM, does not improve the predictions in comparison to experimental data. The last case considered a transverse injection of hydrogen and the EDM approach provided overall good agreement with experimental pressure traces except in the vicinity of the injection location. The EDM appears to be a suitable tool for scramjet combustor analysis incorporating different fuel injection mechanisms with hydrogen. More specifically, the considered test cases demonstrate that the model provides reasonable predictions of pressure, velocity, temperature and composition.

Aeronautic Pitot probes (PPs) are extremely important for airspeed and altitude measurements in aviation. Failure of the instrument due to clogging caused by ice formation can lead to dangerous situations. In this work, a commercial aeronautic PP was characterised experimentally regarding its inner composition, material properties and its thermal performance in a climatic wind tunnel. Performance runs were taken out in order to analyse the thermal response of the PP under various operating conditions with a particular emphasis on the cooling process in the case of a heating element failure. Data for the thermal conductivity, diffusivity and specific heat for each material forming the PP were obtained. A numerical model to simulate the thermal behaviour of the PP was created using Comsol Multiphysics (CM). Experimental data were compared with their numerical counterparts for model validation purposes. After the model was validated, the operation of the PP in flight conditions was simulated. The failure of the conventional heating system was analysed to obtain the time until the PP reaches a tip temperature where ice formation can be expected. The tip temperature undercut the zero degrees Celsius mark 165 seconds after the heating element was switched off. The data collected in this work can be used to implement and validate mathematical models in order to predict the thermal performance of Pitot probes in flight conditions.

Scaled model test is an effective means to verify the design of a stiffened cylindrical shell. However, there is a problem of similarity distortion by use of the traditional dimensional analysis to design scaled models. In this present study, an equivalent similar method is proposed to solve the problem. The method is applied to an axial stiffened cylindrical shell, and the equivalent criteria and scaling laws satisfying the equivalent similarity of global bending mode are derived and verified by numerical examples. The results indicate that the similarity distortion caused by practical conditions for the stiffened cylindrical shell can be solved and the parameters of scaled model can be designed more freely with the proposed equivalent similar method.

Concepts of new fluttering wind and water mills led to general solution of flutter by a foil section free to pitch about an axis ahead of ${1}/{4}$ chord. The pitch damping of the vorticity being shed by lift change is negative singular via the imaginary part of the Theodorsen function. So a 2D airfoil can slowly flutter in pure pitch at a very high inertia with radian frequency and growth rate, reduced by windspeed/chord, resp. less than .087 and .01. At the frequency of nil net pitch damping, the binary inertia/damping cross determinant vanishes on a line in the imbalance vs inertia plane. The perturbed frequency contours just a bit above and below this ‘beab’ line spectacularly split to asymptote to the pure pitch inertia vertical of implied infinite heave stiffness. Higher frequency contours turn back towards the positive imbalance axis and then the origin, changing from hyperbolic to elliptical at exactly the same .087 and asymptoting to a line between the nexus and four times the nexus and a mode of effective pitch about ${3}/{4}$ chord. At .6 the pure pitch frequency the imaginary part dominates in the quadratic inertia and imbalance coefficients to bend the neutral contours down and across the quasi-steady line to even turn back to very large negative imbalance at small inertia, where kinematics then imply high mass. Diagonally mirror hyperbolae exist for greater than the pure pitch inertia with a different dynamic implication of very high foil mass.

An experimental technique for assessing film cooling performance is proposed which can determine both film effectiveness and heat transfer coefficient distributions from a single infrared experiment. First, the film effectiveness is determined in the experiment’s steady-state phase on a series of film-cooled nozzle guide vane leading edge geometries made of a low thermal conductivity foam. Then, the effectiveness is used to calculate the distribution of the transient phase driving gas temperatures, which is applied to a finite element conduction model. Heat transfer coefficients are guessed and iteratively refined until the surface temperature histories predicted by the finite element model match those which were experimentally observed. Unlike conventional methods based on one-dimensional analytical heat transfer solutions, this approach does not require assumptions about the material thickness underlying the test surface or the uniformity with depth of its initial temperature distribution. This relieves certain experimental constraints and reduces uncertainty in results.

This manuscript discusses the numerical (finite element) and analytical modelling of structural interactions between gas turbine components in case of excessive axial movement and overspeed. Excessive axial movement, which may occur after a shaft failure, results in contact between rotating and static turbine components under high forces. These forces create friction which can act as a counter torque, potentially retarding the ‘free-rotating’ components. The study is based on a shaft failure scenario of a ‘three-shaft’, high ‘bypass’ ratio, civil ‘large-fan’ engine. Coupled analytical performance and friction methods are used as stand-alone tools to investigate the effect of rubbing between rotating and stationary components. The method is supported by ‘high-fidelity’, ‘three-dimensional’, thermomechanical finite element simulations using LS-DYNA software. The novelty of the work reported herein lies in the development of a generalised modelling approach that can produce useful engine design guidelines to minimise the terminal speed of a free running turbine after an unlocated shaft failure. The study demonstrates the advantage of using a fast analytical formulation in a design space exploration, after verifying the analytical model against finite element simulation results. The radius and the area of a stationary seal platform in the turbine assembly are changed systematically and the design space is explored in terms of turbine acceleration, turbine dislocation rate and stationary component mass. The radius of the friction interface increases due to the increasing radius of the nozzle guide vane flow path and stationary seal platform. This increases the frictional torque generated at the interface. It was found that if the axial dislocation rate of the free running turbine wheel is high, the resulting friction torque becomes more effective as an overspeed prevention mechanism. Reduced contact area results in a higher axial dislocation rate and this condition leads to a design compromise between available friction capacity, during shaft failure contact and seal platform structural integrity.

The drive for increasing flight efficiency is resulting in wing designs that are of higher aspect ratios, lower in weight, increased wingspans and, consequently, require greater attention in the disciplines of aeroelastics and loads. This trend in aircraft design, along with past research experience with flexible aircraft, motivate a review of assumptions in gust models; especially, that of the gust maintaining a uniform spanwise profile. In this paper, the authors investigate the use of spanwise varying 1−cos gust models for loads prediction using a non-linear aeroelastic model of a conventional large transport aircraft. The comparison between a test case using conventional uni-dimensional approach and another, using multidimensional gusts, illustrates the impact of stepping away from traditional discrete tuned gust processes and adding a spanwise varying gust component. A methodology for processing and analysing the loads data arising due to the added dimension is also developed and both envelope and correlated loads are considered. Gust characteristics and resulting load factor are, respectively, considered for comparison between the two models, as both metrics define realistic gust encounters. In this case, it has been shown that spanwise variation of gust profiles leads to lower envelope loads if viewed in terms of conventional gust gradients. However, higher envelope loads are found if the maximum load factors are matched.

Product development, especially in aerospace, has become more and more interconnected with its operational environment. In a constant changing world, the operational environment will be subjected to changes during the life cycle of the product. The operational environment will be affected by not only technical and non-technical perturbations, but also economical, managerial and regulatory decisions, thus requiring a more global product development approach. One way to try tackling such complex and intertwined problem advocates studying the envisioned product or system in the context of system of systems (SoS) engineering. SoSs are all around us, probably in any field of engineering, ranging from integrated transport systems, public infrastructure systems to modern homes equipped with sensors and smart appliances; from cities filling with autonomous vehicle to defence systems.

Since also aerospace systems are certainly affected, this work will present a holistic approach to aerospace product development that tries spanning from needs to technology assessment. The proposed approach will be presented and analysed and key enablers and future research directions will be highlighted from an interdisciplinary point of view. Consideration of the surrounding world will require to look beyond classical engineering disciplines.

An important prerequisite for the design, assessment and certification of aircraft and their associated control systems is a quantitative specification of the environment in which the aircraft is intended to operate, for example, atmospheric gust. Gust loads on aircraft may induce detrimental influences such as increased aerodynamic and structural loads, structural deformation and decreased flight dynamic performance. This paper presents a systematic and comprehensive overview of important concepts and applications of gust loads on aircraft. This overview includes a brief research background, concepts, research techniques, influences and load alleviation measures of gust. Finally, we summarise some potential improvements in the future work. It is also recommended to learn from previous experiences to avoid aviation accidents due to flight through atmospheric gusts and turbulence.

Stiffened wing and fuselage panels often have a postbuckling reserve of strength, enabling them to carry loads far in excess of their critical buckling loads. Therefore allowing for postbuckling in design can reduce their weight, hence reducing fuel consumption and environmental impact. The present paper extends the postbuckling analysis in the exact strip software VICONOPT to more accurately reflect the skewed mode shapes arising from shear load and anisotropy. Such mode shapes are represented by a series of sinusoidal responses with different half-wavelengths which are coupled together using Lagrangian multipliers to enforce the boundary conditions. In postbuckling analysis the in-plane deflections involve responses with additional half-wavelengths which are absent from the out-of-plane deflection series. Numerical results are presented and compared with finite element analysis for validation. The present analysis gives close results compared to the finite element and finite strip methods and saves computational time significantly.

The problem of the magnetic attitude tracking control is studied for a gravity gradient microsatellite in orbital transfer. The contributions of the work are mainly shown in two aspects: (1) the design of an expected attitude trajectory; (2) a method of the magnetic attitude tracking control. In orbital transfer, the gravity gradient microsatellite under a constant thrust shows complicated dynamic behaviours. In order to damp out the pendular motion, the gravity gradient microsatellite is subject to the the attitude tracking problem. An expected attitude trajectory is designed based on dynamic characteristics revealed in the paper, which not only ensures the flight safety of the system, but also reduces the energy consumption of the controller. Besides, the control torque produced by a magnetorquer is constrained to lie in a two-dimensional plane orthogonal to the magnetic field, so an auxiliary compensator is proposed to improve the control performance, which is different from existing magnetic control methods. In addition, a sliding mode control based on the compensator is presented, and the Lyapunov stability analysis is performed to show the global convergence of the tracking error. Finally, a numerical case of the gravity gradient microsatellite is studied to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed tracking control.

This paper considers the integrated guidance and control (IGC) problem for impact angle constrained interception against manoeuvring targets with actuator saturation constraint. Based on the backstepping technique, an adaptive IGC law is presented to address this problem, where a fixed-time differentiator is proposed to estimate the derivatives of virtual control inputs to avoid the inherent problem of “explosion of complexity” suffered by the typical backstepping. Furthermore, an auxiliary first-order filter is introduced into the IGC law to cope with the actuator saturation constraint. The stability of the closed-loop system is strictly proved. Finally, the superiority of the proposed IGC law is verified by comparison simulations.

This paper deals with the actuation system design of a full-scale morphing aileron for regional aircraft. The aileron is allowed to smoothly change its geometrical configuration and perform the in-flight transition from a baseline shape to a set of optimal morphed ones pre-defined on the basis of aerodynamic requirements. The design of such innovative aileron is aimed not only at substituting the conventional aileron installed on a real aircraft but also to provide additional functionality. The aileron is free to rotate around its main hinge axis and it is also allowed to smoothly modify camber with two independent actuation systems. In such manner it can be used also during cruise with a symmetric deflection between the two half wings in order to reduce drag in off design condition. To accomplish variable aileron shape, a rigid-body mechanism was designed. The proposed aileron architecture is characterised by segmented adaptive ribs rigidly linked each other with spanwise reinforcements such as spars and stringers in a multi-box arrangement. Each rib is split into two movable plates connected by means of rotational hinges in a finger-like mechanism. The mechanism is driven by a load-bearing actuator by means of a kinematic chain opportunely tied based on the structural requirements in terms of shape to be matched and load to be withstood. The proposed device is an innovative arrangement of the quick-return mechanism composed of a beam leverage, commercial linear guides and a crank. The actuator shaft is directly inserted in the crank, which transmits the rotation to the linear guide that slide along a rail moving upward or downward the beam thus resulting in a camber variation. The entire aileron is moved by three leverages internally contained and distributed along the first two bays while the most external ribs are considered passive and their movement slaved. Two actuation layouts are analytically and numerically studied, the analytical theory is presented and validated by means of a multi-body simulation. Moreover, a linear static analysis was carried out under the hypothesis of glued contact between linear guides components simulating a jamming condition. This assumption has been formulated because it represents the most severe condition that envelop all the operative loads to which the actuation system is subjected. The analyses conducted are preliminarily aimed to verify that no failure occur under the imposed loads. In this first design loop, the vertical static force acting on the linear carriage exceeded allowable value and then a new configuration with double-sided linear guides was then investigated.

Airframe–propulsion integration concepts that use boundary-layer ingestion (BLI) have the potential to reduce aircraft fuel burn. One concept that has been recently explored is NASA’s STARC-ABL aircraft configuration, which offers the potential for fuel burn reduction by using a turboelectric propulsion system with an aft-mounted electrically driven BLI propulsor. So far, attempts to quantify this potential fuel burn reduction have not considered the full coupling between the aerodynamic and propulsive performance. To address the need for a more careful quantification of the aeropropulsive benefit of the STARC-ABL concept, we run a series of design optimisations based on a fully coupled aeropropulsive model. A 1D thermodynamic cycle analysis is coupled to a Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes simulation to model the aft propulsor at a cruise condition and the effects variation in propulsor design on overall performance. A series of design optimisation studies are performed to minimise the required cruise power, assuming different relative sizes of the BLI propulsor. The design variables consist of the fan pressure ratio, static pressure at the fan face, and 311 variables that control the shape of both the nacelle and the fuselage. The power required by the BLI propulsor is compared with a podded configuration. The results show that the BLI configuration offers 6–9% reduction in required power at cruise, depending on assumptions made about the efficiency of power transmission system between the under-wing engines and the aft propulsor. Additionally, the results indicate that the power transmission efficiency directly affects the relative size of the under-wing engines and the aft propulsor. This design optimisation, based on computational fluid dynamics, is shown to be essential to evaluate current BLI concepts and provides a powerful tool for the design of future concepts.

Experimental and numerical investigations into the linear and nonlinear aeroelastic behaviour of very flexible High Altitude Long Endurance (HALE) wings are conducted to assess the effect of geometrical nonlinearities on wings displaying moderate-to-large displacement. The study shows that the dynamic behaviour of wings under large deflection, and specifically the edgewise and torsion natural frequencies and modal characteristics, are largely affected by the presence of geometrical nonlinearities. A modular wing structure has been manufactured by rapid prototyping and it has been tested to characterise its dynamic and aeroelastic behaviour. At first, several simple isotropic cantilever beams with selected crosssections are numerically investigated to extract their modal characteristics. Experiments are subsequently conducted to validate the geometrically nonlinear dynamics behaviour due to high tip displacement and to understand the influence of the beam cross-section geometry. The structural dynamics and aeroelastic analysis of a very flexible modular selected wing is then investigated. Clean-wing wind-tunnel tests are carried out to assess flutter and dynamic response. The wind-tunnel model display interesting aeroelastic features including the substantial influence of the wing large deformation on its natural frequencies and modal characteristics.

RANS models remain an attractive turbulence simulation method which could provide some open jet aerofoil interaction analysis at a fraction of the cost of a high-fidelity LES approach. The present work explores the potential and limitations of RANS in this context by simulating an open jet aerofoil noise experiment using the aerospace oriented Menter SST RANS model. This model’s tendency to transition at a critical Reynolds number lower than the experimental value was found to impact the boundary layer development. However, the introduction of a low-Re correction improved the prediction of surface pressure and skin friction, enabling the suction surface separation bubble to be captured. The free shear layer’s virtual origin characteristics exhibited sensitivity to the interaction with the aerofoil, which can be developed into a metric of the interaction. The main challenge for RANS was accounting for the rise in background disturbance level in the working section, which is caused by the high-turbulence intensity in the free shear layers.

An advanced geared turbofan with year 2035 technology level assumptions was established and used for the hybridisation study in this paper. By boosting the low-speed shaft of the turbofan with electrical power through the accessory gearbox, a parallel hybrid concept was set up. Focusing on the off-design performance of the hybridised gas turbine, electrical power input to the shaft, defined as positive hybridisation in this context, generally moves the compressor operation towards surge. On the other hand, the negative hybridisation, which is to reverse the power flow direction can improve the part-load operations of the turbofan and minimise the use of compressor handling bleeds. For the pre-defined mission given in the paper, negative hybridisation of descent, approach and landing, and taxi operations with 580 kW, 240 kW and 650 kW, respectively was found sufficient to keep a minimum compressor surge margin requirement without handling bleed.

Looking at the hybridisation of key operating points, boosting the cruise operation of the baseline geared turbofan is, however, detrimental to the engine efficiency as it is pushing the cruise operation further away from the energy optimal design point. Without major modifications to the engine design, the benefit of the hybridisation appears primarily at the thermomechanical design point, the hot-day take-off. With the constraint of the turbine blade metal temperature in mind, a 500kW positive hybridisation at hot-day take-off gave cruise specific fuel consumption (SFC) reduction up to 0.5%, mainly because of reduced cooling flow requirement. Through the introduction of typical electrical power system performance characteristics and engine performance exchange rates, a first principles assessment is illustrated. By applying the strategies discussed in the paper, a 3% reduction in block fuel burn can be expected, if a higher power density electrical power system can be achieved.

To accurately predict the probabilities of impact damage to aircraft from runway debris, it is important to understand and quantify the aerodynamic forces that contribute to runway debris lofting. These lift and drag forces were therefore measured in experiments with various bodies spun over a range of angular velocities and Reynolds numbers. For a smooth sphere, the Magnus effect was observed for ratios of spin speed to flow speed between 0.3 and 0.4, but a negative Magnus force was observed at high Reynolds numbers as a transitional boundary layer region was approached. Similar relationships between lift and spin rate were found for both cube- and cylinder-shaped test objects, particularly with a ratio of spin speed to flow speed above 0.3, which suggested comparable separation patterns between rapidly spinning cubes and cylinders. A tumbling smooth ellipsoid had aerodynamic characteristics similar to that of a smooth sphere at a high spin rate. Surface roughness in the form of attached sandpaper increased the average lift on the cylinder by 24%, and approximately doubled the lift acting on the ellipsoid in both rolling and tumbling configurations.