Flexible Composite Propeller Design for Optimized Performance in Propulsive and Regenerative Operating Conditions

The ever-growing aerospace industry's urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions has ignited a surge of interest in hybrid or fully electric propulsion systems. The electrification of aircraft introduces the possibility for energy to be recovered during phases of flight where no power input is required, and previous research has demonstrated...

Application of Aeroelastic Tailoring for Load Alleviation on a Flying Demonstrator Wing †

This article presents the application of aeroelastic tailoring in the design of wings for a flying demonstrator, as well as the validation of the design methodology with flight test results. The investigations were performed in the FLEXOP project (Flutter Free Flight Envelope Expansion for Economical Performance Improvement), funded under the...

Static Aeroelastic Scaling: Design of a static aeroelastically scaled strut-braced wing wind tunnel test model

Classical aerodynamic wind tunnel tests are performed with stiff or rigid wind tunnel models. Over the years wing structures have become more flexible, and with the rise of non-conventional designs, such as strut-braced wings featuring high aspect ratios, even more flexible designs have risen. To capture the aerodynamic performance of these...

Stacking Sequence Retrieval of Large Composite Structures in Bi-step Optimization Strategies Using Mechanical Constraints

Multi-step optimization of large composite structures involves formulating the stiffness distribution in terms of lamination parameters that provide a continuous design space, followed by a second optimization in the discrete design space to obtain equivalent stacking sequences. The retrieval of stacking sequences is often challenging as a...

FLEXOP – Application of aeroelastic tailoring to a flying demonstrator wing

This paper presents the application of aeroelastic tailoring in the design of flying demonstrator wings. The work is part of the Flutter Free Flight Envelope eXpansion (FLEXOP) project, funded under the Horizon 2020 framework. The project involves the design, manufacturing and flight-testing of a UAV toward two principle goals: i) to demonstrate...

Static aeroelastic optimization of composite wind turbine blades using variable stiffness laminates: Exploring twist coupled composite blades in stall control

There is a growth in the energy consumption of the world, leading to rapid depletion of natural resources, such as fossil fuels. Added to that, the environmental impact of fossil fuels (e.g. global warming) makes a renewable source of energy a better alternative for power generation. Among renewable energy sources, generating energy from wind is...