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.
