A systematic approach to design for lifelong aircraft evolution

Modern aerospace systems rely heavily on legacy platforms and their derivatives. Historical examples show that after a vehicle design is frozen and delivered to a customer, successive upgrades are often made to fulfill changing requirements. Current practices of adapting to emerging needs with derivative designs, retrofits, and upgrades are often reactive and ad-hoc, resulting in performance and cost penalties. Recent DoD acquisition policies have addressed this problem by establishing a general paradigm for design for lifelong evolution. However, there is a need for a unified, practical design approach that considers the lifetime evolution of an aircraft concept by incorporating future requirements and technologies. This research proposes a systematic approach with which the decision makers can evaluate the value and risk of a new aircraft development program, including potential derivative development opportunities. The proposed Evaluation of Lifelong Vehicle Evolution (EvoLVE) method is a two- or multi-stage representation of the aircraft design process that accommodates initial development phases as well as follow-on phases. One of the key elements of this method is the Stochastic Programming with Recourse (SPR) technique, which accounts for uncertainties associated with future requirements. The remedial approach of SPR in its two distinctive problem-solving steps is well suited to aircraft design problems where derivatives, retrofits, and upgrades have been used to fix designs that were once but no longer optimal. The solution approach of SPR is complemented by the Risk-Averse Strategy Selection (RASS) technique to gauge risk associated with vehicle evolution options. In the absence of a full description of the random space, a scenario-based approach captures the randomness with a few probable scenarios and reveals implications of different future events. Last, an interactive framework for decision-making support allows simultaneous navigation of the current and future design space with a greater degree of freedom. A cantilevered beam design problem was set up and solved using the SPR technique to showcase its application to an engineering design setting. The full EvoLVE method was conducted on a notional multi-role fighter based on the F/A-18 Hornet.Ph.D.Committee Chair: Mavris, Dimitri; Committee Member: Bishop, Carlee; Committee Member: Costello, Mark; Committee Member: Nam, Taewoo; Committee Member: Schrage, Danie

A World-Class University-Industry Consortium for Wind Energy Research, Education, and Workforce Development: Final Technical Report

During the two-year project period, the consortium members have developed control algorithms for enhancing the reliability of wind turbine components. The consortium members have developed advanced operation and planning tools for accommodating the high penetration of variable wind energy. The consortium members have developed extensive education and research programs for educating the stakeholders on critical issues related to the wind energy research and development. In summary, The Consortium procured one utility-grade wind unit and two small wind units. Specifically, the Consortium procured a 1.5MW GE wind unit by working with the world leading wind energy developer, Invenergy, which is headquartered in Chicago, in September 2010. The Consortium also installed advanced instrumentation on the turbine and performed relevant turbine reliability studies. The site for the wind unit is InvenergyÃÂÃÂÃÂâÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂs Grand Ridge wind farmin Illinois. The Consortium, by working with Viryd Technologies, installed an 8kW Viryd wind unit (the Lab Unit) at an engineering lab at IIT in September 2010 and an 8kW Viryd wind unit (the Field Unit) at the Stuart Field on IITÃÂÃÂÃÂâÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂs main campus in July 2011, and performed relevant turbine reliability studies. The operation of the Field Unit is also monitored by the Phasor Measurement Unit (PMU) in the nearby Stuart Building. The Consortium commemorated the installations at the July 20, 2011 ribbon-cutting ceremony. The ConsortiumÃÂÃÂÃÂâÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂs researches on turbine reliability included (1) Predictive Analytics to Improve Wind Turbine Reliability; (2) Improve Wind Turbine Power Output and Reduce Dynamic Stress Loading Through Advanced Wind Sensing Technology; (3) Use High Magnetic Density Turbine Generator as Non-rare Earth Power Dense Alternative; (4) Survivable Operation of Three Phase AC Drives in Wind Generator Systems; (5) Localization of Wind Turbine Noise Sources Using a Compact Microphone Array; (6) Wind Turbine Acoustics - Numerical Studies; and (7) Performance of Wind Turbines in Rainy Conditions. The ConsortiumÃÂÃÂÃÂâÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂs researches on wind integration included (1) Analysis of 2030 Large-Scale Wind Energy Integration in the Eastern Interconnection; (2) Large-scale Analysis of 2018 Wind Energy Integration in the Eastern U.S. Interconnection; (3) Integration of Non-dispatchable Resources in Electricity Markets; (4) Integration of Wind Unit with Microgrid. The ConsortiumÃÂÃÂÃÂâÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂs education and outreach activities on wind energy included (1) Wind Energy Training Facility Development; (2) Wind Energy Course Development; (3) Wind Energy Outreach

Appropriate Wisdom, Technology, and Management toward Environmental Sustainability for Development

The protection and maintenance of environmental resources for future generations require responsible interaction between humans and the environment in order to avoid wasting natural resources. According to an ancient Native American proverb, “We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children.” This indigenous wisdom has the potential to play a significant role in defining environmental sustainability. Recent technological advances could sustain humankind and allow for comfortable living. However, not all of these advancements have the potential to protect the environment for future generations. Developing societies and maintaining the sustainability of the ecosystem require appropriate wisdom, technology, and management collaboration. This book is a collection of 19 important articles (15 research articles, 3 review papers, and 1 editorial) that were published in the Special Issue of the journal Sustainability entitled “Appropriate Wisdom, Technology, and Management toward Environmental Sustainability for Development” during 2021-2022.addresses the policymakers and decision-makers who are willing to develop societies that practice environmental sustainability, by collecting the most recent contributions on the appropriate wisdom, technology, and management regarding the different aspects of a community that can retain environmental sustainability

Mobile Robots

The objective of this book is to cover advances of mobile robotics and related technologies applied for multi robot systems' design and development. Design of control system is a complex issue, requiring the application of information technologies to link the robots into a single network. Human robot interface becomes a demanding task, especially when we try to use sophisticated methods for brain signal processing. Generated electrophysiological signals can be used to command different devices, such as cars, wheelchair or even video games. A number of developments in navigation and path planning, including parallel programming, can be observed. Cooperative path planning, formation control of multi robotic agents, communication and distance measurement between agents are shown. Training of the mobile robot operators is very difficult task also because of several factors related to different task execution. The presented improvement is related to environment model generation based on autonomous mobile robot observations

Uncertainty modeling : fundamental concepts and models

This book series represents a commendable effort in compiling the latest developments on three important Engineering subjects: discrete modeling, inverse methods, and uncertainty structural integrity. Although academic publications on these subjects are plenty, this book series may be the first time that these modern topics are compiled together, grouped in volumes, and made available for the community. The application of numerical or analytical techniques to model complex Engineering problems, fed by experimental data, usually translated in the form of stochastic information collected from the problem in hand, is much closer to real-world situations than the conventional solution of PDEs. Moreover, inverse problems are becoming almost as common as direct problems, given the need in the industry to maintain current processes working efficiently, as well as to create new solutions based on the immense amount of information available digitally these days. On top of all this, deterministic analysis is slowly giving space to statistically driven structural analysis, delivering upper and lower bound solutions which help immensely the analyst in the decisionmaking process. All these trends have been topics of investigation for decades, and in recent years the application of these methods in the industry proves that they have achieved the necessary maturity to be definitely incorporated into the roster of modern Engineering tools. The present book series fulfills its role by collecting and organizing these topics, found otherwise scattered in the literature and not always accessible to industry. Moreover, many of the chapters compiled in these books present ongoing research topics conducted by capable fellows from academia and research institutes. They contain novel contributions to several investigation fields and constitute therefore a useful source of bibliographical reference and results repository. The Latin American Journal of Solids and Structures (LAJSS) is honored in supporting the publication of this book series, for it contributes academically and carries technologically significant content in the field of structural mechanics

Reliability-based design optimisation methods in large scale systems

Doctor of PhilosophyStructural optimisation is an important field of applied mathematics, which has proved useful in engineering projects. Reliability-based design optimisation (RBDO) can be considered a branch of structural optimisation. Different RBDO approaches have been applied in real world problems (e.g. vehicle side impact model, short column design, etc.). Double-loop, single-loop, and decoupled approaches are three categories in RBDO. This research focuses on double-loop approaches, which consider reliability analysis problems in their inner loops and design optimisation calculations in their outer loops. In recent decades, double-loop approaches have been studied and modified in order to improve their stability and efficiency, but many shortcomings still remain, particularly regarding reliability analysis methods. This thesis will concentrate on development of new reliability analysis methods that can be applied to solve RBDO problems. As a local optimisation algorithm, the conjugate gradient method will be adopted. Furthermore, a new method will be introduced to solve a reliability analysis problem in the polar space. The reliability analysis problem must be transformed into an unconstrained optimisation problem before solving in the polar space. Two methods will be introduced here and their stability and efficiency will be compared with the existing methods via numerical experiments. Next, we consider applications of RBDO models to electricity networks. Most of the current optimisation models of these networks are categorised as deterministic design optimisation models. A probabilistic constraint is introduced in this thesis for electricity networks. For this purpose, a performance function must be defined for a network in order to define safety and failure conditions. Then, new non-deterministic design optimisation models will be formulated for electricity networks by using the mentioned probabilistic constraint. These models are designed to keep failure probability of the network below a predetermined and accepted safety level

Space transportation system and associated payloads: Glossary, acronyms, and abbreviations

A collection of some of the acronyms and abbreviations now in everyday use in the shuttle world is presented. It is a combination of lists that were prepared at Marshall Space Flight Center and Kennedy and Johnson Space Centers, places where intensive shuttle activities are being carried out. This list is intended as a guide or reference and should not be considered to have the status and sanction of a dictionary