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At least 523 records · Page 29

Aeroelastic Stability for Straight and Swept-Tip Rotor Blades in Hover and Forward Flight

Two isolated, hingeless rotors with identical fiber-reinforced composite root flexures were tested in hover and forward flight at realistic tip speeds. The rotors differed in blade planform and structure. The first blade set was of rectangular planform. The second set had blades of stiffer construction with swept-tips. The purpose of these tests was to measure the isolated rotor aeroelastic stability of bending/torsion coupled rotor blades over a range of flight conditions. The two soft inplane rotor systems were designed with low first torsion frequency to emphasize the effects of torsion. Regressing lag mode damping is shown in hover with precone and collective pitch variations and in forward flight with airspeed, shaft angle, precone and collective pitch variations. Correlation with comprehensive analysis for a number of test conditions is shown. Agreement in hover is excellent and forward flight correlation is reasonably good.

REGRESSING LAG MODE DAMPING↗

Aeroelastic Wing Shaping Control Subject to Actuation Constraints.

This paper considers the control of coupled aeroelastic aircraft model which is configured with Variable Camber Continuous Trailing Edge Flap (VCCTEF) system. The relative deflection between two adjacent flaps is constrained and this actuation constraint is accounted for when designing an effective control law for suppressing the wing vibration. A simple tuned-mass damper mechanism with two attached masses is used as an example to demonstrate the effectiveness of vibration suppression with confined motion of tuned masses. In this paper, a dynamic inversion based pseudo-control hedging (PCH) and bounded control approach is investigated, and for illustration, it is applied to the NASA Generic Transport Model (GTM) configured with VCCTEF system.

aeroelasticity↗

Inertial Force Coupling to Nonlinear Aeroelasticity of Flexible Wing Aircraft

This paper investigates the inertial force effect on nonlinear aeroelasticity of flexible wing aircraft. The geometric are nonlinearity due to rotational and tension stiffening. The effect of large bending deflection will also be investigated. Flutter analysis will be conducted for a truss-braced wing aircraft concept with tension stiffening and inertial force coupling.

Aeroelasticity↗

Nonlinear Large Deflection Theory with Modified Aeroelastic Lifting Line Aerodynamics for a High Aspect Ratio Flexible Wing

This paper investigates the effect of nonlinear large deflection bending on the aerodynamic performance of a high aspect ratio flexible wing. A set of nonlinear static aeroelastic equations are derived for the large bending deflection of a high aspect ratio wing structure. An analysis is conducted to compare the nonlinear bending theory with the linear bending theory. The results show that the nonlinear bending theory is length-preserving whereas the linear bending theory causes a non-physical effect of lengthening the wing structure under the no axial load condition. A modified lifting line theory is developed to compute the lift and drag coefficients of a wing structure undergoing a large bending deflection. The lift and drag coefficients are more accurately estimated by the nonlinear bending theory due to its length-preserving property. The nonlinear bending theory yields lower lift and span efficiency than the linear bending theory. A coupled aerodynamic-nonlinear finite element model is developed to implement the nonlinear bending theory for a Common Research Model (CRM) flexible wing wind tunnel model to be tested in the University of Washington Aeronautical Laboratory (UWAL). The structural stiffness of the model is designed to give about 10% wing tip deflection which is large enough that could cause the nonlinear deflection effect to become significant. The computational results show that the nonlinear bending theory yields slightly less lift than the linear bending theory for this wind tunnel model. As a result, the linear bending theory is deemed adequate for the CRM wind tunnel model.

Aeroelasticity↗

Topology Optimization of Low-Speed Aeroelastic Wind Tunnel Models

The goal of this work is to utilize topology optimization methods to obtain low-speed flexible wind tunnel models with simple jig outer mold lines, but highly-tuned aeroelastic flutter behavior. The wing is conceptually constructed with commonly-available 3D printed materials, of which the optimizer may select one of two at every location in the wing; a stiffer material meant to bear the loads, and a softer rubber-like material for space filling, and to form the outer mold line, where needed. Results are shown for three topological parameterizations: 2D topologies with a fixed nondesignable plate through the camber line, 2D parameterizations without the plate, and 3D parameterizations where the topology can vary though the depth of the wing, at a given planform location.

Aeroelasticity↗

Scaled Aeroelastic Wind Tunnel Model Design with Topology Optimization

The goal of this work is to use numerical aeroelastic topology optimization to design flutter models to be tested in the Transonic Dynamics Tunnel, as part of an envisioned validation experiment for transonic flutter. The topological design develops the structural details of a variable-thickness aluminum plate located at the camber line of a scaled transport aircraft model, in order to satisfy the various conflicting design requirements, including a prescribed flutter boundary, flutter frequency, and static stress levels. Four designs are demonstrated here, where it is shown that the simultaneous design of a cylindrical tip store can help ease the conflict between low stiffness (to allow a wing to flutter in the tunnel envelope) and high strength (to ensure safe structural response). The tip store complicates the geometrical features of the wing, however, and is generally undesirable from the vantage point of a validation experiment.

Aeroelasticity↗

NASA Langley Research Center Contributions to the 3rd AePW High-Speed Working Group - HyMAX Computational Aeroelastic Predictions

This presentation is given at the 3rd AePW High-Speed Working Group co-located at the AIAA 2023 SciTech Conference. It is a computation study of the UNSW Canberra HyMAX hypersonic flexible plate experiment. The computations are performed with the FUN3D aeroelastic CFD code. Analysis of a 2 and 10 degree turning angle cases are done. The Mach number is 5.8. The unsteady pressures and displacements and damping of the structure are presented.

Hypersonics↗

Aeroelastic Simulation of Wind Tunnel Scale Aspect Ratio 13.5 Common Research Model with Trailing Edge Mini-Flaps

This paper presents a computation study of an aspect ratio 13.5 wind tunnel scale Common Research Model (CRM) with trailing edge mini-flaps using FUN3D. The aeroelastic simulations are conducted under free-air and inside wind tunnel conditions. The NASA Langley Research Center Transonic Dynamic Tunnel (TDT) is a closed circuit and slotted-test-section with a 16 ft ×16 ft test section. The structure mode shapes are extracted from the latest updated NASTRAN Finite-Element Model (FEM) model. A dynamic pressure sweep is performed to determine the control reversal boundary of the trailing edge mini-flaps. The wind tunnel wall interference effects on the mini-flap control derivatives are analyzed based on the simulations.

Aeroelastic↗

Technoeconomic assessment of distillation heat transfer intensification using aeroelastically fluttering reeds

Dry cooling, where forced air is the heat transfer medium, is a preferable cooling method in arid locations lacking readily available process water. However, such locations often experience high ambient temperatures that limit the effectiveness of air cooling. The objective of this study is to quantify the economic and energetic benefits of heat transfer intensification via the implementation of aeroelastically fluttering reeds to the air-cooled condenser of a methanol distillation column. Condenser size and performance, regarding recovered methanol and required fan power, is evaluated across condenser operating temperatures (T cond ) from 60 to 62°C and heat transfer coefficients (U) U base –2U base for a range of inlet air temperatures based on ambient temperature data from Yuma, Arizona. Under typical design sizing, condenser capital cost was reduced by 6%–35% (1.3U base –2U base ) and nominal methanol recovery was increased from 0.26% to 0.38% (T cond = 62–60°C). At optimized condenser size, all enhanced U and T cond pairs increase methanol recovery and reduce fan power costs compared to the optimal Ubase reference. Overall, using enhanced heat transfer to maintain condenser temperature under a wider range of inlet conditions, rather than to reduce operation temperature, produces more favorable performance. Methanol price is not a determining factor in which pairs are profitable. Analysis was repeated for a global warming scenario, revealing more valuable improvements under elevated temperatures. Energy savings from condenser improvement to a methanol production system are not significant with respect to an optimized conventional system. Furthermore, unit economic and energetic incentives suggest implementation of fluttering reeds may be justified in other applications.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Combined selection of the dynamic model and modeling error in nonlinear aeroelastic systems using Bayesian Inference

Here, we report a Bayesian framework for concurrent selection of physics-based models and (modeling) error models. We investigate the use of colored noise to capture the mismatch between the predictions of calibrated models and observational data that cannot be explained by measurement error alone within the context of Bayesian estimation for stochastic ordinary differential equations. Proposed models are characterized by the average data-fit, a measure of how well a model fits the measurements, and the model complexity measured using the Kullback–Leibler divergence. The use of a more complex error models increases the average data-fit but also increases the complexity of the combined model, possibly over-fitting the data. Bayesian model selection is used to find the optimal physical model as well as the optimal error model. The optimal model is defined using the evidence, where the average data-fit is balanced by the complexity of the model. The effect of colored noise process is illustrated using a nonlinear aeroelastic oscillator representing a rigid NACA0012 airfoil undergoing limit cycle oscillations due to complex fluid–structure interactions. Several quasi-steady and unsteady aerodynamic models are proposed with colored noise or white noise for the model error. The use of colored noise improves the predictive capabilities of simpler models.

42 ENGINEERING↗