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Rotocycloid propulsion presents interesting performance as a possible long-term alternative to helicopters in a far future. It will lead to increase the energy efficiency of VTOL vehicles. This paper focuses on optimization of an airship with the possibility up to 2000 h/year of photovoltaic propelled flight at a cruise speed about 20 m/s. This paper demonstrates the feasibility of this airship concept and presents a full dimensioning according to the CDE (Constructal Design for Efficiency) developed at University of Modena and Reggio Emilia. The proposed solution has been deeply analyzed and the analysis of performances has been presented. The results allow thinking to a novel class of vehicles designed specifically to take the maximum advantage by this propulsion method.

Emissions from aviation have become a focus of increasing interest in recent years. The growth of civil aviation is faster than nearly all other economic sectors. Increased demand has led to a higher growth rate in fossil fuels consumption by the aviation sector. Despite more fuel-efficient and less polluting turbofan and turboprop engines, the growth of air travel contributes to increase pollution attributable to aviation. Aircraft are currently the only human-made in situ generators of emissions in the upper troposphere and in the stratosphere. The depletion of the stratosphere's ozone layer by CFCs and related chemicals has underscored the importance of anticipating other potential insults to the ozone layer. Different possible solutions have been advanced to reduce the environmental impact of aviation, such as electrification of ground operations, optimization of airline timetables and airspace usage, limitation of cruise altitude and increased use of turboprop aircrafts.

Since the early 1970s, when microprocessors became commercially available, they quickly became a common part of all aircraft control and indication systems. With an ever-increasing number of microprocessor-based airborne applications, safety regulations and software standards like RTCA DO-178 evolved, demanding rigorous requirements and processes for software development, testing, life cycle, and certification. Over the years, as development of aerospace software applications increased, engineering costs of development and product certification costs exponentially increased, having a significant impact on the market. Landing Gear Actuation system is one of many aircraft systems whose control functions are based on microprocessors and software application.

The purpose of this study is to set up a laboratory test apparatus to analyze aircraft flight control EMAS' electrical and thermal energy flow under transient and dynamic flight profiles. A hydraulic load frame was used to exert load to the EMA. The actuator was placed within an environmental chamber which simulates ambient temperature as function of altitude. The simulated movement or stroke was carried out by the EMA. The under test EMA's dynamic load, stroke, and ambient temperature were synchronized through a real time Labview DAQ system. Motor drive voltage, current, regenerative current, and motor drive and motor winding temperature were recorded for energy analysis. The EMA under test was subjected to both transient and holding load laid out in a test matrix.

Vives College University and Kulab (KU Leuven University campus Ostend) in Belgium are undertaking an aeronautical research program about the development of a new Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). Since the UAV is completely electrically powered, the analysis of the energy management of the integrated electrical system was critical to the development of the UAV. LMS, A Siemens Business, is involved in the project to support the development of a multi-physics simulation model for electro-thermal analysis of the aircraft. This paper reports on the subsequent investigation of integrating the detailed electrical system model for a Pilot-in-the-Loop simulation. In order to perform this simulation, the model of the electrical system was converted into a real-time simulation model. The aim was to perform more realistic flight simulations to evaluate the performance of the aircraft before its first flight by taking into account the electrical system's behavior.

This paper presents the implementation of flight path reconstruction (FPR) and wind estimation techniques applied to a high performance fighter aircraft. The analysis is carried out for the flight test data gathered and stored in a Crash Data Recorder (CDR). The data signals obtained from CDR are generally highly noisy, with frequent data drop outs and also with low sampling rate. The estimation technique applied for data reconstruction is the extended Kalman filtering (EKF). The reconstructed trajectories can be compared with the actual flight trajectories such that, in case of unavailability of data from other sources (e.g., digital flight control computer), the algorithm should be able to reconstruct the trajectories with the minimum set of data available from the CDR. Wind estimation along with the trajectory reconstruction can give better accuracy in airspeed as well as flow angles.

The main goal of this flight control system is to achieve good performance with acceptable flying quality within the specified flight envelope while ensuring robustness for model variations, such as mass variation due to fuel burn. The Cessna Citation X aircraft linear model is presented for different flight conditions to cover the aircraft's flight envelope, on which a robust controller is designed using the H-infinity method optimized by two heuristic algorithms. The optimal controller was used to achieve satisfactory dynamic characteristics for the longitudinal and lateral stability control augmentation systems with respect to this aircraft's flying quality requirements. The weighting functions of the H-infinity method were optimised by using both genetic and differential evolution algorithms. The evolutionary algorithms gave very good results.

This paper describes a high-speed electrical machine for an aircraft starter-generator. A surface mounted permanent magnet machine is designed to have minimal rotor losses and a novel cooling system for the stator. An inner stator sleeve is adopted to allow for a flooded stator whilst minimizing rotor windage losses. Different slot-pole combinations are compared in view of attaining an optimal combination that provides minimum losses whilst satisfying the electromagnetic, mechanical and thermal constraints.

There is a continuing need to simulate power electronic circuits that include magnetic components. It is necessary to determine the interaction of the magnetic component with the rest of the power electronic system so that a dynamic circuit model of the magnetic components including material saturation and iron losses is required. Also, the magnetic component model must be valid when the magnetic component's excitation is not sinusoidal. A dynamic magnetic circuit model derived from Maxwell's equations along with useful theorems for building circuit models from the structure of the magnetic device is reviewed. The developed circuit models are general including magnetic saturation and iron losses. Simulation results for a DC/DC converter employing a conventional gapped inductor and a gapped coupled inductor are presented.

Current industry trends demonstrate aircraft electrification will be part of future platforms in order to achieve higher levels of efficiency in various vehicle level sub-systems. However, electrification requires a substantial change in aircraft design that is not suitable for re-winged or re-engined applications as some aircraft manufacturers are opting for today. Thermal limits arise as engine cores progressively get smaller and hotter to improve overall engine efficiency, while legacy systems still demand a substantial amount of pneumatic, hydraulic and electric power extraction. The environmental control system (ECS) provides pressurization, ventilation and air conditioning in commercial aircraft, making it the main heat sink for all aircraft loads with exception of the engine fuel thermal management system.

A brake pad wear control algorithm used under non-emergency braking conditions is proposed to reduce the difference in brake pad wear between the front and rear axles caused by the difference in brakes and braking force. According to the adhesion state of the pad wear, the control algorithm adjusted the braking force distribution ratio of front and rear wheel that balanced adhesion pad wear value. Computer co-simulations of braking with Trucksim and Matlab/Simulink using vehicle models with equal brake pad wear, greater wear on the front axle and greater wear on the rear axle respectively is performed. The computation simulation results show that meet the brake force distribution system regulatory requirements and total vehicle braking force unchanged.

Pneumatic Electric Braking System (EBS) is getting widely spread for commercial vehicles. Pneumatic EBS improves the problem of slow response of traditional pneumatic braking system by implementing brake-by-wire. However, the time-delay response and hysteresis of some electro-pneumatic components and some other issues decrease the response and control accuracy of the pneumatic EBS.

Four-wheel independent control electric vehicle is a new type of x-by-wire EV with four wheels independent steering and four wheels independent drive/brake systems. In order to take full advantage of the vehicle's performance potential, this paper presents a novel integrated chassis control strategy. In the paper, the strategy is designed by the hierarchical control structure and divided into integrated control layer and allocation layer. By this method, the control logical can be modularized and simplified. In the integrated control layer, Model Prediction Control (MPC) is adopted to design the integrated control unit, which belongs to be a kind of local optimization algorithm with feedback correction features. Using this method could avoid the system performance degradation caused by the control model mismatch. The control allocation layer is to optimally distribute the vehicle control forces to the steering/driving/brake actuators on each wheel.

An open-link locomotion module (OLLM) is an autonomous energy self-sufficient locomotion setup for designing ground wheeled vehicles of a given configuration that includes drive/driven and steered/non-steered wheels with individual suspension and brake systems. Off-road applications include both trucks and trailers. The paper concentrates on the module's electro-hydraulic suspension design and presents results of analytical and experimental studies of a trailer with four driven (no wheel torque applied) open-link locomotion modules. On highly non-even terrain, the suspension design provides the sprung mass with sufficient vibration protection at low level of normal oscillations, enhanced damping and stabilized angular movements. This is achieved by the introduction of two control loops: (i) a fast-acting loop to control the damping of the normal displacements; and (ii) a slow-acting control loop for varying the pressure and counter-pressure in the suspension system.

The durability of the components in a vehicle plays one of the major roles in its life cycle cost. The powertrain mount is one such component since its rubber characteristics have significant impact on the vehicle's NVH and fatigue life. This paper presents the enhanced durability benefits obtained by changing the polymer composition, manufacturing methods and design optimization of a powertrain mount for an off-road commercial vehicle. The methodology involved characterization[2] of the existing mount, arriving a new compound formulation, making of prototypes, experimental validation for durability[3] and repeatability in the laboratory combined with rigorous on field vehicle trials. NVH measurements were also carried out on the improved mounts. The above exhaustive exercise resulted in the development of a comprehensively far better mount than an existing mount with improved durability without compromise on NVH properties.

We have developed a fundamentally new design of adaptive suspension systems of vehicles. Their technical characteristics and functional abilities are far better than the existing designs of suspensions. We have developed the following main suspension components of vehicles: a lockable adaptive shock absorber with an ultra-wide range of control performance, implementing “lockout” mode by means of blocking adaptive shock absorber, and an elastic element with progressive non-linear characteristic and automatic optimization of localization of work areas. Our patents confirm the novelty and efficiency of our major design decisions. Advantages of our developments in the vehicle suspensions are the following.

The demand for comfort level in commercial vehicles is steadily increasing. Hence, fine-tuned performance parameters and attributes are required to fulfill the expectations from these vehicles. Refinement of noise and vibration without affecting performances of sub-systems and components has become extremely challenging with increasing customer requirements. This paper presents an approach to identify and reduce the high level whistling noise that was perceived in the passenger compartment while the vehicle was accelerated above 50 kmph. Interior noise measurements in static engine run-up condition reveal that the whistling noise is of specific order. Since, whistling noise is related to aerodynamic response of components, engine cooling fan, turbo charger, alternators and compressors were suspected. Using order tracking and near field measurements, HVAC alternator was confirmed as the main cause for whistling noise.

This paper describes a prediction of vibration and the transfer path analysis (TPA) using an engine multi body dynamics (MBD) model and measured frequency response functions (FRFs). TPA is used in order to analyze each contribution of vibration transfer paths. In the TPA, input forces from vibration source to passive part should be identified accurately. In the traditional TPA, an identification of input forces is done using only experimental results. Therefore, a parametric study to an improvement of a structure or an isolation system is impossible. In this study, the MBD model of engine is constructed, and input forces from engine to mainframe of agriculture machine are predicted. The accuracy of prediction is confirmed, compared with the results from the traditional TPA method. The contribution of each transfer path is analyzed, and the vibration levels of operator position are predicted using the measured FRFs and the simulated input forces.

Rechargeable lithium batteries are essentially ubiquitous in our daily lives and in virtually every industry from pocket key fobs to billion dollar space programs, in benign as well as extreme environments. Cell production in 2012 was estimated at 4.4 billion cells and expected to double by 2016. However within civil aviation, lithium batteries are still in the early stages of deployment. The general consensus within the industry is that the use of lithium batteries within civil aviation will increase substantially in the coming years. This paper focuses on design considerations with respect to deployment of rechargeable, or secondary, lithium batteries within civil aviation.

This article attempts to provide a big picture of systems engineering in both philosophy and engineering perspectives, discusses current status and issues, trends of systems engineering development, future directions and challenges, followed by certain examples.