Student : Divya Sanghi
Sponsor : Airbus-Michigan Center for Aero-Servo-Elasticity of Very Flexible Aircraft (CASE-VFA)
Future aircraft designs may leverage the lower induced drag of high-aspect-ratio wings (HARWs) to reduce fuel consumption. However, HARWs are much more flexible than conventional wings and introduce nonlinear behaviors which affect the aircraft’s aeroelastic and flight dynamics response.
Future civil transport aircraft configurations will have higher-aspect-ratio wings for achieving higher fuel efficiency. However, these configurations exhibit higher structural flexibility, which degrades roll maneuverability, handling and ride qualities. Passive and active aeroelastic tailoring can be used to alleviate gust and maneuver loads and improve the handling and ride qualities.
Further an additional challenge in the design of HARWs is to incorporate nonlinear effects in the aircraft’s aeroelastic and flight dynamics response. I am currently working with the University of Michigan’s Nonlinear Aeroelastic Simulation Toolbox (UM/NAST), a framework for fully-coupled flight dynamics and nonlinear aeroservoelastic analyses. The work includes enhancing the framework to incorporate the capability to conduct both passive and active aeroelastic studies by modelling both conventional and unconventional control effectors. This research work in support of developing tools that can help in studying the behavior of future HARW aircraft with a focus on meeting the certification requirements while providing higher performance.
References:
[1] Sanghi, D., Riso, C., Cesnik, C.E.S., and Vetrano, F., “Impact of Aileron Placement on Roll Response of High-Aspect-Ratio-Wing Aircraft,” 2020 AIAA Aviation Virtual Forum, June, 2020
[2] Sanghi, D., Riso, C., Cesnik, C.E.S., and Vetrano, F., “Impact of Control-Surface Flexibility on the Dynamic Response of Flexible Aircraft,” 2020 AIAA SciTech Forum, Orlando, FL, January 6–10, 2020
[3] Riso, C., Sanghi, D., Cesnik, C.E.S., Vetrano, F., and Teufel, P., “Parametric Roll Maneuverability Analysis of a High-Aspect-Ratio-Wing Civil Transport Aircraft,” 2020 AIAA SciTech Forum, Orlando, FL, January 6–10, 2020