scholarly journals Design of a Variable-Stiffness Compliant Skin for a Morphing Leading Edge

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 3165
Author(s):  
Zhigang Wang ◽  
Yu Yang

A seamless and smooth morphing leading edge has remarkable potential for noise abatement and drag reduction of civil aircraft. Variable-stiffness compliant skin based on tailored composite laminate is a concept with great potential for morphing leading edge, but the currently proposed methods have difficulty in taking the manufacturing constraints or layup sequence into account during the optimization process. This paper proposes an innovative two-step design method for a variable-stiffness compliant skin of a morphing leading edge, which includes layup optimization and layup adjustment. The combination of these two steps can not only improve the deformation accuracy of the final profile of the compliant skin but also easily and effectively determine the layup sequence of the composite layup. With the design framework, an optimization model is created for a variable-stiffness compliant skin, and an adjustment method for its layups is presented. Finally, the deformed profiles between the directly optimized layups and the adjusted ones are compared to verify its morphing ability and accuracy. The final results demonstrate that the obtained deforming ability and accuracy are suitable for a large-scale aircraft wing.

2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 295-303 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tu Baofeng ◽  
Zhang Kai ◽  
Hu Jun

AbstractIn order to improve compressor performance using a new design method, which originates from the fins on a humpback whale, experimental tests and numerical simulations were undertaken to investigate the influence of the tubercle leading edge on the aerodynamic performance of a linear compressor cascade with a NACA 65–010 airfoil. The results demonstrate that the tubercle leading edge can improve the aerodynamic performance of the cascade in the post-stall region by reducing total pressure loss, with a slight increase in total pressure loss in the pre-stall region. The tubercles on the leading edge of the blades cause the flow to migrate from the peak to the valley on the blade surface around the tubercle leading edge by the butterfly flow. The tubercle leading edge generates the vortices similar to those created by vortex generators, splitting the large-scale separation region into multiple smaller regions.


Author(s):  
Yu Yang ◽  
Zhigang Wang ◽  
Binwen Wang ◽  
Shuaishuai Lyu

Wing's morphing leading edge, drooping in a seamless way, has significant potential for noise abatement and drag reduction. Innovative design methods for compliant skin and internal actuating mechanism, respectively, are proposed and validated through a mockup in this paper. For the skin, a collaborative optimization method is presented, which takes all design variables, continuous and discrete, into account simultaneously. Moreover, to overcome the drawback of conventional algorithm, which is insufficient for deformation control in critical regime, weight penalty is imposed on present objective function. On the other hand, an internal kinematic actuating mechanism is designed from an improved concept, of which positions of level-rod hinges are optimized in a larger zone to fit the deflection requirement. The test of mockup validates the above methods, and excellent morphing quality of the compliant skin proves the advancement of the collaborative optimization method. However, the design method of internal actuating mechanism needs further improvement, and the error induced deteriorates the final morphing quality of the mockup.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (12) ◽  
pp. 3484
Author(s):  
Tai-Lin Chang ◽  
Shun-Feng Tsai ◽  
Chun-Lung Chen

Since the affirming of global warming, most wind energy projects have focused on the large-scale Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines (HAWTs). In recent years, the fast-growing wind energy sector and the demand for smarter grids have led to the use of Vertical Axis Wind Turbines (VAWTs) for decentralized energy generation systems, both in urban and remote rural areas. The goals of this study are to improve the Savonius-type VAWT’s efficiency and oscillation. The main concept is to redesign a Novel Blade profile using the Taguchi Robust Design Method and the ANSYS-Fluent simulation package. The convex contour of the blade faces against the wind, creating sufficient lift force and minimizing drag force; the concave contour faces up to the wind, improving or maintaining the drag force. The result is that the Novel Blade improves blade performance by 65% over the Savonius type at the best angular position. In addition, it decreases the oscillation and noise accordingly. This study achieved its two goals.


1984 ◽  
Vol 106 (1) ◽  
pp. 222-228 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. L. Marziale ◽  
R. E. Mayle

An experimental investigation was conducted to examine the effect of a periodic variation in the angle of attack on heat transfer at the leading edge of a gas turbine blade. A circular cylinder was used as a large-scale model of the leading edge region. The cylinder was placed in a wind tunnel and was oscillated rotationally about its axis. The incident flow Reynolds number and the Strouhal number of oscillation were chosen to model an actual turbine condition. Incident turbulence levels up to 4.9 percent were produced by grids placed upstream of the cylinder. The transfer rate was measured using a mass transfer technique and heat transfer rates inferred from the results. A direct comparison of the unsteady and steady results indicate that the effect is dependent on the Strouhal number, turbulence level, and the turbulence length scale, but that the largest observed effect was only a 10 percent augmentation at the nominal stagnation position.


1998 ◽  
Vol 120 (4) ◽  
pp. 705-713 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. T. Hsu ◽  
A. M. Wo

This paper demonstrates reduction of stator unsteady loading due to forced response in a large-scale, low-speed, rotor/stator/rotor axial compressor rig by clocking the downstream rotor. Data from the rotor/stator configuration showed that the stator response due to the upstream vortical disturbance reaches a maximum when the wake impinges against the suction surface immediately downstream of the leading edge. Results from the stator/rotor configuration revealed that the stator response due to the downstream potential disturbance reaches a minimum with a slight time delay after the rotor sweeps pass the stator trailing edge. For the rotor/stator/rotor configuration, with Gap1 = 10 percent chord and Gap2 = 30 percent chord, results showed a 60 percent reduction in the stator force amplitude by clocking the downstream rotor so that the time occurrence of the maximum force due to the upstream vortical disturbance coincides with that of the minimum force due to the downstream potential disturbance. This is the first time, the authors believe, that beneficial use of flow unsteadiness is definitively demonstrated to reduce the blade unsteady loading.


Author(s):  
Jan Schumann ◽  
Ulrich Harbecke ◽  
Daniel Sahnen ◽  
Thomas Polklas ◽  
Peter Jeschke ◽  
...  

The subject of the presented paper is the validation of a design method for HP and IP steam turbine stages. Common design processes have been operating with simplified design methods in order to quickly obtain feasible stage designs. Therefore, inaccuracies due to assumptions in the underlying methods have to be accepted. The focus of this work is to quantify the inaccuracy of a simplified design method compared to 3D Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations. Short computing time is very convenient in preliminary design; therefore, common design methods work with a large degree of simplification. The origin of the presented analysis is a mean line design process, dealing with repeating stage conditions. Two features of the preliminary design are the stage efficiency, based on loss correlations, and the mechanical strength, obtained by using the beam theory. Due to these simplifications, only a few input parameters are necessary to define the primal stage geometry and hence, the optimal design can easily be found. In addition, by using an implemented law to take the radial equilibrium into account, the appropriate twist of the blading can be defined. However, in comparison to the real radial distribution of flow angles, this method implies inaccuracies, especially in regions of secondary flow. In these regions, twisted blades, developed by using the simplified radial equilibrium, will be exposed to a three-dimensional flow, which is not considered in the design process. The analyzed design cases show that discrepancies at the hub and shroud section do exist, but have minor effects. Even the shroud section, with its thinner leading-edge, is not vulnerable to these unanticipated flow angles.


2011 ◽  
Vol 672 ◽  
pp. 451-476 ◽  
Author(s):  
ERICH SCHÜLEIN ◽  
VICTOR M. TROFIMOV

Large-scale longitudinal vortices in high-speed turbulent separated flows caused by relatively small irregularities at the model leading edges or at the model surfaces are investigated in this paper. Oil-flow visualization and infrared thermography techniques were applied in the wind tunnel tests at Mach numbers 3 and 5 to investigate the nominally 2-D ramp flow at deflection angles of 20°, 25° and 30°. The surface contour anomalies have been artificially simulated by very thin strips (vortex generators) of different shapes and thicknesses attached to the model surface. It is shown that the introduced streamwise vortical disturbances survive over very large downstream distances of the order of 104 vortex-generator heights in turbulent supersonic flows without pressure gradients. It is demonstrated that each vortex pair induced in the reattachment region of the ramp is definitely a child of a vortex pair, which was generated originally, for instance, by the small roughness element near the leading edge. The dependence of the spacing and intensity of the observed longitudinal vortices on the introduced disturbances (thickness and spanwise size of vortex generators) and on the flow parameters (Reynolds numbers, boundary-layer thickness, compression corner angles, etc.) has been shown experimentally.


Author(s):  
Wei Ma ◽  
Feng Gao ◽  
Xavier Ottavy ◽  
Lipeng Lu ◽  
A. J. Wang

Recently bimodal phenomenon in corner separation has been found by Ma et al. (Experiments in Fluids, 2013, doi:10.1007/s00348-013-1546-y). Through detailed and accurate experimental results of the velocity flow field in a linear compressor cascade, they discovered two aperiodic modes exist in the corner separation of the compressor cascade. This phenomenon reflects the flow in corner separation is high intermittent, and large-scale coherent structures corresponding to two modes exist in the flow field of corner separation. However the generation mechanism of the bimodal phenomenon in corner separation is still unclear and thus needs to be studied further. In order to obtain instantaneous flow field with different unsteadiness and thus to analyse the mechanisms of bimodal phenomenon in corner separation, in this paper detached-eddy simulation (DES) is used to simulate the flow field in the linear compressor cascade where bimodal phenomenon has been found in previous experiment. DES in this paper successfully captures the bimodal phenomenon in the linear compressor cascade found in experiment, including the locations of bimodal points and the development of bimodal points along a line that normal to the blade suction side. We infer that the bimodal phenomenon in the corner separation is induced by the strong interaction between the following two facts. The first is the unsteady upstream flow nearby the leading edge whose angle and magnitude fluctuate simultaneously and significantly. The second is the high unsteady separation in the corner region.


Author(s):  
A. Samson ◽  
S. Sarkar

The dynamics of separation bubble under the influence of continuous jets ejected near the semi-circular leading edge of a flat plate is presented. Two different streamwise injection angles 30° and 60° and velocity ratios 0.5 and 1 for Re = 25000 and 55000 (based on the leading-edge diameter) are considered here. The flow visualizations illustrating jet and separated layer interactions have been carried out with PIV. The objective of this study is to understand the mutual interactions of separation bubble and the injected jets. It is observed that flow separates at the blending point of semi-circular arc and flat plate. The separated shear layer is laminar up to 20% of separation length after which perturbations are amplified and grows in the second-half of the bubble leading to breakdown and reattachment. Blowing has significantly affected the bubble length and thus, turbulence generation. Instantaneous flow visualizations supports the unsteadiness and development of three-dimensional motions leading to formation of Kelvin-Helmholtz rolls and shedding of large-scale vortices due to jet and bubble interactions. In turn, it has been seen that both the spanwise and streamwise dilution of injected air is highly influenced by the separation bubble.


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