Periodic Reporting for period 3 - GUDGET (GUst generators and model DesiGn for transonic wind tunnel tEsTs)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2021-12-01 al 2023-02-28
GUDGET aims at providing an innovative experimental set-up for the investigation of gust loads, to be installed in the transonic facility ONERA S3Ch.
GUDGET designed, manufactured, calibrated and finally gave support to the installation in the ONERA S3Ch WT of an enhanced gust generator system and an aeroelastic half-model connected to the WT side wall, with the purpose to support ONERA in the execution of a WT test campaign and gather information on the aeroelastic behaviour of the model under high-amplitude gust conditions.
Regarding the Societal and Environmental Impacts, GUDGET contributes to a higher aviation’s sustainability with its developed methodologies and technologies leading to reduced environmental pollution through reduced weight. Indeed, GUDGET contributed to provide the industry and the scientific European Community with a novel gust load prediction and simulation system that can cope with demand for increased testing productivity while maintaining the required aerospace quality standards, therefore by improving productivity and reliance on aeroelastic wind tunnel testing, with a clear impact on the enhancement of gust load prediction methods. Thanks to this advancement, the current conservatism in the prediction of gust and turbulence loads, often sizing load cases for main wing and tail surfaces' structures, will be reduced with a direct reduction of structural weight. OEMs data show that thanks to a weight reduction of 1t, potential benefit of 900t CO2 reduction per year can be achieved. This is in line with the CS2 work-programme, the ACARE Vision 2020 and the Flightpath 2050 strategy.
Overall, GUDGET objectives refer to four main categories: design; aerodynamic and aero-structural investigations; Manufacturing, procurement & instrumentation; functional validation and testing. All project objectives, fully achieved, pointed together towards the final and effective implementation of the new enhanced gust generator system and the WT aeroelastic half-model used to validate the reproduced turbulent environment.
GUDGET designed, manufactured, calibrated and finally gave support to the installation in the ONERA S3Ch WT of an enhanced gust generator system and an aeroelastic half-model connected to the WT side wall, with the purpose to support ONERA in the execution of a WT test campaign and gather information on the aeroelastic behaviour of the model under high-amplitude gust conditions.
Regarding the Societal and Environmental Impacts, GUDGET contributes to a higher aviation’s sustainability with its developed methodologies and technologies leading to reduced environmental pollution through reduced weight. Indeed, GUDGET contributed to provide the industry and the scientific European Community with a novel gust load prediction and simulation system that can cope with demand for increased testing productivity while maintaining the required aerospace quality standards, therefore by improving productivity and reliance on aeroelastic wind tunnel testing, with a clear impact on the enhancement of gust load prediction methods. Thanks to this advancement, the current conservatism in the prediction of gust and turbulence loads, often sizing load cases for main wing and tail surfaces' structures, will be reduced with a direct reduction of structural weight. OEMs data show that thanks to a weight reduction of 1t, potential benefit of 900t CO2 reduction per year can be achieved. This is in line with the CS2 work-programme, the ACARE Vision 2020 and the Flightpath 2050 strategy.
Overall, GUDGET objectives refer to four main categories: design; aerodynamic and aero-structural investigations; Manufacturing, procurement & instrumentation; functional validation and testing. All project objectives, fully achieved, pointed together towards the final and effective implementation of the new enhanced gust generator system and the WT aeroelastic half-model used to validate the reproduced turbulent environment.
GUDGET successfully reached the objective of providing an innovative experimental set-up for the investigation of gust loads, to be installed in the transonic facility ONERA S3Ch. GUDGET designed, manufactured, calibrated, verified and finally supported the installation in the ONERA S3Ch WT of an enhanced gust generator system and an aeroelastic half-model connected to the WT side wall, with the purpose to enable the execution of a WT test campaign to gather information on the aero-servo-elastic behaviour of the model under high amplitude gust conditions, with the acquisition of a relevant database which will allow to assess the numerical capabilities to predict and control gust loads. This is going to produce technical benefits from several points of view, by contributing to develop more comfortable and safer aircraft, lighter and more efficient aero-structures, with potential tangible improvements in terms of fuel consumption and emissions.
Therefore, it is expected that GUDGET will generate impacts at several levels, namely in the three major areas of European competitiveness within the aeronautical sector, society and Environment, innovation and knowledge integration, for the applicants and their stakeholders.
In terms of European competitiveness, GUDGET provided the industry and the scientific Community with a novel gust load prediction and simulation system that can cope with demand for increased testing productivity while maintaining the required aerospace quality standards. The most important feature of the system is the potentiality to implement different kinds of actuations for the GGs, namely mechanical and fluidic, with the possibility to activate one or the other depending on the specific test to be performed. The project is therefore contributing to improving the European industrial competitiveness by improving productivity and reliance on aeroelastic wind tunnel testing with its innovative test setup. Increasing the accessibility to such a non-conventional and technically challenging kind of test, thanks to the use of a reasonably affordable experimental facility, will enable the European aerospace industry to refine and improve their prediction methods and to produce superior products at reduced cost.
Furthermore, GUDGET is aiming at reducing the cost of certification by contributing to the development of more efficient and reliable methods for gust loads calculations, with the possibility of numerical validation offered by the experimental setup developed in the project. The aeronautical industry will make benefit from these results for the next generation of aircraft.
Regarding the Societal and Environmental Impacts, GUDGET is contributing to a higher aviation’s sustainability by developing methodologies and technologies leading to reduced environmental pollution through reduced weight.
Moreover, the impact of technologies, methods and experimental setup developed and produced by GUDGET can have significant influence on different types of vehicles (Business Jet aircraft, General and Commercial Aviation) or industries (space, marine, energy) where relevant flying objects (e.g. launchers) or plants must be tested in turbulent environment. Therefore, a valuable positive impact of GUDGET is expected in terms of knowledge integration, thanks to the close ties of the GUDGET consortium partners to many European industries, helping strengthening the European innovation capacity and competitiveness.
Therefore, it is expected that GUDGET will generate impacts at several levels, namely in the three major areas of European competitiveness within the aeronautical sector, society and Environment, innovation and knowledge integration, for the applicants and their stakeholders.
In terms of European competitiveness, GUDGET provided the industry and the scientific Community with a novel gust load prediction and simulation system that can cope with demand for increased testing productivity while maintaining the required aerospace quality standards. The most important feature of the system is the potentiality to implement different kinds of actuations for the GGs, namely mechanical and fluidic, with the possibility to activate one or the other depending on the specific test to be performed. The project is therefore contributing to improving the European industrial competitiveness by improving productivity and reliance on aeroelastic wind tunnel testing with its innovative test setup. Increasing the accessibility to such a non-conventional and technically challenging kind of test, thanks to the use of a reasonably affordable experimental facility, will enable the European aerospace industry to refine and improve their prediction methods and to produce superior products at reduced cost.
Furthermore, GUDGET is aiming at reducing the cost of certification by contributing to the development of more efficient and reliable methods for gust loads calculations, with the possibility of numerical validation offered by the experimental setup developed in the project. The aeronautical industry will make benefit from these results for the next generation of aircraft.
Regarding the Societal and Environmental Impacts, GUDGET is contributing to a higher aviation’s sustainability by developing methodologies and technologies leading to reduced environmental pollution through reduced weight.
Moreover, the impact of technologies, methods and experimental setup developed and produced by GUDGET can have significant influence on different types of vehicles (Business Jet aircraft, General and Commercial Aviation) or industries (space, marine, energy) where relevant flying objects (e.g. launchers) or plants must be tested in turbulent environment. Therefore, a valuable positive impact of GUDGET is expected in terms of knowledge integration, thanks to the close ties of the GUDGET consortium partners to many European industries, helping strengthening the European innovation capacity and competitiveness.
As mentioned, GUDGET designed an experimental setup for the ONERA S3Ch wind tunnel focused on the generation of high amplitude gusts for gust loads measurements on a suitable wall-mounted half-model.
The main technically ambitious parts targeted by GUDGET can be summarized by the following points, each one challenging and representing a step beyond the state-of-the-art in WT systems and models design and manufacturing.
1. Employment of fluidic actuators in an unsteady environment, with the necessity to synchronize multiple actuators with alternative blowing with the aim to maximize the GG performance.
2. Design and manufacture of a “small” WT model, highly instrumented, with three different configurations of model-WT interfaces: pitch blocked, pitch constraint with pre-defined flexibility, enforced pitch motion.
3. Design of a high-precision aileron mechanism with the integration and direct application of small and high-performance actuators to make the system able to alleviate and control gust and turbulence loads in the bandwidth [0-100 Hz].
GUDGET produced technical benefits from several points of view, by contributing to develop more comfortable and safer aircraft, lighter and more efficient aero-structures, with potential tangible improvements in terms of fuel consumption and emissions.
It is expected that GUDGET will generate impacts at several levels, namely in the three major areas of European competitiveness within the aeronautical sector, society and Environment, innovation and knowledge integration, for the applicants and their stakeholders.
In terms of European competitiveness, GUDGET is contributing to provide the industry and the scientific European Community with a novel gust load prediction and simulation system, by reducing also the cost of certification by contributing to the development of more efficient and reliable methods for gust loads calculations.
The main technically ambitious parts targeted by GUDGET can be summarized by the following points, each one challenging and representing a step beyond the state-of-the-art in WT systems and models design and manufacturing.
1. Employment of fluidic actuators in an unsteady environment, with the necessity to synchronize multiple actuators with alternative blowing with the aim to maximize the GG performance.
2. Design and manufacture of a “small” WT model, highly instrumented, with three different configurations of model-WT interfaces: pitch blocked, pitch constraint with pre-defined flexibility, enforced pitch motion.
3. Design of a high-precision aileron mechanism with the integration and direct application of small and high-performance actuators to make the system able to alleviate and control gust and turbulence loads in the bandwidth [0-100 Hz].
GUDGET produced technical benefits from several points of view, by contributing to develop more comfortable and safer aircraft, lighter and more efficient aero-structures, with potential tangible improvements in terms of fuel consumption and emissions.
It is expected that GUDGET will generate impacts at several levels, namely in the three major areas of European competitiveness within the aeronautical sector, society and Environment, innovation and knowledge integration, for the applicants and their stakeholders.
In terms of European competitiveness, GUDGET is contributing to provide the industry and the scientific European Community with a novel gust load prediction and simulation system, by reducing also the cost of certification by contributing to the development of more efficient and reliable methods for gust loads calculations.