Ultra High Aspect Ratio Wing Advanced Research and Designs

Project Information

U-HARWARD

Grant agreement ID: 886552

DOI

10.3030/886552

Project closed

EC signature date 9 March 2020

Start date 1 May 2020

End date 31 October 2023

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Smart, Green And Integrated Transport

Total cost

€ 2 510 938,75

EU contribution

€ 2 510 938,75

Coordinated by

POLITECNICO DI MILANO
Italy

Periodic Reporting for period 3 - U-HARWARD (Ultra High Aspect Ratio Wing Advanced Research and Designs)

Reporting period: 2022-11-01 to 2023-10-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

• What is the problem/issue being addressed?
U-HARWARD will consider the use of innovative aerodynamic and aeroelastic designs in a multi-fidelity multi-disciplinary optimal design approach to facilitate the development of Ultra-High aspect ratio wings for large transport aircraft. A conceptual design study, building on the current state of the art, will perform trade-off studies to determine the potential gains of different wing configurations and loads alleviation concepts in terms of aerodynamics, weight, noise, fuel-burn and range. Scaled model wind tunnel tests will be used to validate parametric variations in the aerodynamic and acoustic characteristics. Starting from a reference aircraft, the preliminary design of the best candidate configuration will be completed and the estimated gains validated using high fidelity tools and a larger scale aeroelastic test.

• Why is it important for society?
Aviation is a strong driver of economic growth, jobs, trade and mobility for the European Union. It plays a crucial role in the EU economy and reinforces its global leadership position. The EU aviation sector directly employs between 1.4 and 2 million people and overall supports between 4.85 million and to 5.56 million jobs. The direct contribution of aviation to EU GDP is €110 billion, while the overall impact, including tourism, is as large as €510 billion through the multiplier effect (https://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-16-661_en.htm). Both the aircraft production and airline operation industries are active on the most globalized markets; therefore, the conservation and future expansion of employment will necessitate a highly increased competitiveness. Growing competition from existing and new entrants means that the European sector can only survive by being a global leader in terms of innovation and product performance, at affordable costs and with high volume availability. As challenging as this may appear, meeting the objective of providing concepts for the next generation European aircraft will open up new market slots. The entire supply chain will benefit of the forecast turnover both in terms of new jobs and new manufacturing plant creation.

• What are the overall objectives?
The top level objective of U-HARWARD projects can be summarized as follows:
To investigate novel configurations based on high and ultra-high aspect ratio so to maximize the benefits in terms of global performances and environmental impact and minimize the structural penalties usually associated to this configuration by means of optimization techniques and new aeroelastic control technologies. To develop a new optimized unconventional design.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The project started May 1st, 2020.
In the first reporting period the following activities have been completed, mainly under the WP2 concerning the preliminary design phase:

• To compare the design capabilities available by different partners
• To identify a Reference Aircraft to be used during the development of the innovative high aspect ratio novel configurations
• To investigate innovative configurations capable to exploit the potential benefits of high and ultra-high aspect ratio wings.
To better investigate the aforementioned goals, the work in WP2 has been divided among three teams inside the consortium, i.e.; POLIMI/IBK, to investigate ultra-high aspect ratio wing in cantilever configuration; ONERA/ISAE to investigate the strut-braced configuration and finally BRISTOL/SIEMENS to investigate the folding wing tip configuration.

In the second reporting period, covering the time frame August 2021-October 2022, the research activities has been focused on the following topics:

1. Finalization of the experimental plan.
2. Finalization of the design of novel aircraft configurations, including the most part of high-fidelity analysis.
3. Design, manufacturing, and testing of 2D flapped wing section equipped with multi configuration strut for aero acoustic measurement.
4. Design and start manufacturing of aeroelastic models for final wind tunnel validation.

In the initial part of this reporting period, an amendment has been put in place to finalize the plan for the experimental activities. After a long interactions with PO and Advisory Board, it was decided to design and manufacture 4 demonstrators: the first one to identify the impact on aeroacoustic behavior of a flapped wing equipped with the strut, to be tested at University of Bristol aeroacoustic wind tunnel. Then, 2 aeroelastic wind tunnel model and one aerodynamic model have been selected, to be tested at POLIMI's large wind tunnel. In details: AE1, a wing plus trut aeroelastic model to investigate the flutter behavior; AA, a aerodynamic model representing the full strut braced aircraft, to identify the stability derivatives at low speed; finally, AE2, a large aeroelastic half model to test the folding wingtip concept under gust loads.

In the final, third, reporting people, covering the time frame November 2022 - October 2023, the research activities has been focused on the following topics:

1. Finalization of the design of novel aircraft configurations, including the most part of high-fidelity analysis.
3. Design, manufacturing, and testing of all the three planned wind tunnel models at large POLIMI's wind tunnel for aerodynamic and aeroelastic purposes
4. Final assessment

Most of the effort has been dedicated to the design finalization, manufacturing and test of three somehow challenging wind tunnel models. Despite some delay in their finalization, all the planned wind tunnel test campaigns have been succesfully finalized.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Regarding the overall operating costs, a recent study estimated the reduction of Direct Operating Costs (DOC) and Cash Operating Costs (COC) of new UHARW wing configurations, derived from the A320 as baseline configuration. The result is that COC can be reduced of more than 12%, with a reduction of fuel consumption higher than 30% for an optimized Strut Braced Wing Other works, despite being less optimistic, estimate a reduction of operating costs of about 4%, with a fuel burn reduction of up to 7%, with a strut braced wing obtained by starting from a Bombardier CRJ aircraft as baseline.

Regardind the pollutants, the impact of this potential in terms of weight reduction on the environment, which U-HARWARD will contribute to, is of paramount importance. 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 work-programme, the ACARE Vision 2020 and the Flightpath 2050 strategy.
It is therefore expected that the implementation and the success of this project will contribute to the development of European technical leadership in aircraft design and manufacturing and will increase competitiveness of EU companies on a worldwide market, helping in the realization of more efficient and less expensive aircraft. Therefore, the consequent impact of U-HARWARD on the whole society is then immediate and tangible.

U-HARWARD Configurations

Pictorial view of SBW configuration proposed by ONERA

Aeroaelastic model AE1 in both strut configurations, tested at POLIMI

Aeroacoustic wind tunnel model tested at UNIVBRIS

Aerodynamic model AA, full span, rigid, tested at POLIMI

Aeroelastic model AE2, implementing the FWT concept, tested at POLIMI