Aerospace Research and Test Establishment

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to describe the approach for the design of cowlings for a new fast helicopter from the perspective of airworthiness requirements regarding high-speed impact resistance.Design/methodology/approachValidated numerical simulation was applied to flat and simple curved test panels. High-speed camera measurement and non-destructive testing (NDT) results were used for verification of the numerical models. The final design was optimized and verified by validated numerical simulation.FindingsThe comparison between numerical simulation based on static material properties with experimental results of high-speed load shows no significant influence of strain rate effect in composite material.Research limitations/implicationsOwing to the sensitivity of the composite material on technology production, the results are limited by the material used and the production technology.Practical implicationsThe application of flat and simple curved test panels for the verification and calibration of numerical models allows the optimized final design of the cowling and reduces the risk of structural non-compliance during verification tests.Originality/valueNumerical models were verified for simulation of the real composite structure based on high-speed camera results and NDT inspection after impact. The proposed numerical model was simplified for application in a complex design and reduced calculation time.

Bird strikes are an important phenomenon that must be taken into consideration when designing aircraft. A bird impact experiment provides a direct method to examine the bird strike resistance. However, the design of the aircraft structures usually involves many iterations of design-manufacturing-test and conducting bird impact experiments is not only time consuming but also costly. The aim of this work is to show the application of test verified numerical simulation for the design of composite cowlings of the high-speed helicopter.

PurposeSome recent effort showed that usage of Krueger flaps helps to maintain laminar flow in cruise flight. Such flaps are positioned higher relative to the chord to shield the leading edge from the insect contamination during take-off. The flap passes several through critical intermediate position during the deployment to its design position. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the aerodynamics.Design/methodology/approachTo better understand such flow phenomena, the combined approach of computational fluid dynamics and experimental methods were used. Flow simulation was performed with in-house finite volume Navier–Stokes solver in fully turbulent unsteady RANS regime. The experimental data were obtained by means of force and pressure measurements and some areas of the flow field were examined with 2 C particle image velocimetry.FindingsThe airfoil with flap in critical position has a very limited maximum lift coefficient. The maximum achievable lift coefficient during the deployment is significantly affected by the vertical position of the trailing edge of the flap. The most unfavourable position during the deployment is not the flap perpendicular to the chord, but the flap inclined closer to it is the retracted position.Research limitations/implicationsThe flap movement was not simulated either in the simulation or in the experiment. Only intermediate static positions were examined.Practical implicationsA better understanding of aerodynamic phenomena connected with the deployment of a Krueger flap can contribute to the simpler and lighter of kinematics and also to decrease time-to-market.Originality/valueLimited experimental and computational results of Krueger flap in critical positions during the deployment are published in the literature.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to describe the approach for the design of a jet engine composite air inlet for a new generation of jet trainer aircraft from the perspective of airworthiness requirements regarding high-speed impact resistance.Design/methodology/approachValidated numerical simulation was applied to flat test panels. The final design was optimised and verified by validated numerical simulation and verified by testing on a full-scale demonstrator. High-speed camera measurement and non-destructive testing (NDT) results were used for the verification of the numerical models.FindingsThe test results of flat test panels confirmed the high durability of the composite structure during inclined high-speed impact with a near-real jet inlet load boundary condition.Research limitations/implicationsOwing to the sensitivity of the composite material on technology production, the results are limited by the material used and the production technology.Practical implicationsThe application of flat test panels for the verification and tuning of numerical models allows optimised final design of the air inlet and reduces the risk of structural non-compliance during verification tests.Originality/valueNumerical models were verified for simulation of the real composite structure based on high-speed camera results and NDT inspection after impact. The proposed numerical model was simplified for application in a real complex design and reduced calculation time.

PurposeDefects can be caused by a number of factors, such as maintenance damage, ground handling and foreign objects thrown up from runways during an in-service use of composite aerospace structures. Sandwich structures are capable of absorbing large amounts of energy under impact loads, resulting in high structural crashworthiness. This situation is one of the many reasons why sandwich structures are extensively used in many aerospace applications nowadays. Their non-destructive inspection is often more complex. Hence, the choice of a suitable non-destructive testing (NDT) method can play a key role in successful damage detection. The paper aims to discuss these issues.Design/methodology/approachA comparison of detection capabilities of selected C-scan NDT methods applicable for inspections of sandwich structures was performed using water-squirt, air-coupled and pitch-catch (PC) ultrasonic techniques, supplemented by laser shearography (LS).FindingsTest results showed that the water-squirt and PC techniques are the most suitable methods for core damage evaluation. Meanwhile, the air-coupled method showed lower sensitivity for the detection of several artificial defects and impact damage in honeycomb sandwiches when unfocussed transducers were used. LS can detect most of the defects in the panels, but it has lower sensitivity and resolution for honeycomb core-type sandwiches.Originality/valueThis study quantitatively compared the damage size indication capabilities of sandwich structures by using various NDT techniques. Results of the realised tests can be used for successful selection of a suitable NDT method. Combinations of the presented methods revealed most defects.

PurposeAerodynamics of paragliders is very complicated aeroelastic phenomena. The purpose of this work is to quantify the amount of aerodynamic drag related to the flexible nature of a paraglider wing.Design/methodology/approachThe laboratory testing on scaled models can be very difficult because of problems in the elastic similitude of such a structure. Testing of full-scale models in a large facility with a large full-scale test section is very expensive. The degradation of aerodynamic characteristics is evaluated from flight tests of the paraglider speed polar. All aspects of the identification such as pilot and suspension lines drag and aerodynamics of spanwise chambered wings are discussed. The drag of a pilot in a harness was estimated by means of wind tunnel testing, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) solver was used to estimating smooth wing lift and drag characteristics.FindingsThe drag related to the flexible nature of the modern paraglider wing is within the range of 4-30 per cent of the total aerodynamic drag depending on the flight speed. From the results, it is evident that considering only the cell opening effect is sufficient at a low-speed flight. The stagnation point moves forwards towards the nose during the high speed flight. This causes more pronounced deformation of the leading edge and thus increased drag.Practical implicationsThis paper deals with a detailed analysis of specific paraglider wing. Although the results are limited to the specific geometry, the findings help in the better understanding of the paraglider aerodynamics generally.Originality/valueThe data obtained in this paper are not affected by any scaling problems. There are only few experimental results in the field of paragliders on scaled models. Those results were made on simplified models at very low Reynolds number. The aerodynamic drag characteristics of the pilot in the harness with variable angles of incidence and Reynolds numbers have not yet been published.

The VZLUSAT-1 satellite, the first Czech CubeSat, was successfully launched on June 23, 2017, to a 510 km Sun-synchronous low-Earth orbit. It carries several scientific payloads including a Timepix detector as focal plane imager for the X-Ray telescope onboard. The Timepix detector contributes significantly to the satellite data collection, with more than 25 000 sampling acquisitions in the first year of deployment. Despite limitations of the satellite attitude control system, necessary for capturing X-Ray images of the Sun, the Timepix detector allows measuring the space radiation environment along the satellite orbit. As of September 2018, we conducted 33 whole-Earth mappings, recording radiation doses around the planet. Further, we show data from scans of the South Atlantic Anomaly and polar radiation horns, where the location and acquisition time were tailored to minimize event pile-up and particle track overlap. Since October 2017, the optics segment of the onboard X-Ray telescope was deployed, which exposed the Timepix detector unshielded to free open space. This change produced entirely new observations namely of low energy charged particles and a significant increase of measured particle flux. We also registered the effects of exposing the sensor to direct intense sunlight. We will summarize on the actual performance of the custom readout interface, which exceeds expectations in the constrained environment of the low-cost and low-powered CubeSat nanosatellite.