More Electric Landing Gear Actuation Study

This report addresses the problem of landing gear actuation system design on more-electric aircraft (MEA). Firstly, information about more-electric aircraft and more-electric actuators was gathered and sorted. Current more-electric landing actuation system applications and researches were also summarized. Then several possible more-electric landing gear actuation concepts were identified. To evaluate these concepts, the case study method has been used. A concept aircraft “MRT7-T”, which has similar maximum takeoff weight to that of Boeing 787, has been chosen as the design case. Systems of different configurations and architectures were designed for this aircraft. In the end of this study, a comparison between different more-electric landing gear actuation systems, and also with traditional central hydraulic system was made. The best concept was proposed. More-electric actuation technology has made considerable progress in the last two decades. However, most of the applications and researches have focused on flight control actuation and brakes. Using more-electric drives for landing gear actuation has been well known to be difficult, for the reason of massive power needs and difficulties in achieving redundancy levels. Famous more-electric research projects like POA and Power-By-Wire only gave recommendation of using electro-hydrostatic actuators (EHA) in landing gear actuation. And no further information is available to the public. In this study, DHS (distributed hydraulic system), EHA (electro-hydrostatic actuator) and EMA (electro-mechanical actuator) were identified as candidate solutions. Design requirements such as retraction time, load and redundancy levels were derived through analysis. As a unique feature, landing gear kinematics concepts were also subject to optimization. Various kinematics concepts were proposed and analyzed in detail, to provide favorable loading and geometrical conditions for the systems. Kinematics design guidelines were built through discussion. Different motors such as AC induction motor, BDCM (brushless DC motor) and PMSM (permanent magnetic synchronous motor) were evaluated for use. Different system architectures were also explored. The multi-discipline optimization method has been extensively used in the design process of the systems. Firstly, each node of the actuation systems was optimized. Then optimizations were made to the systems. Performances of each system were analyzed in several aspects such as weight, power, reliability and maintenance. Comparison of different systems was made through scoring method. The results suggested that DHS, EHA and EMA are all applicable for landing gear actuation. And isolated EHA is the best

3D-in-2D Displays for ATC.

This paper reports on the efforts and accomplishments of the 3D-in-2D Displays for ATC project at the end of Year 1. We describe the invention of 10 novel 3D/2D visualisations that were mostly implemented in the Augmented Reality ARToolkit. These prototype implementations of visualisation and interaction elements can be viewed on the accompanying video. We have identified six candidate design concepts which we will further research and develop. These designs correspond with the early feasibility studies stage of maturity as defined by the NASA Technology Readiness Level framework. We developed the Combination Display Framework from a review of the literature, and used it for analysing display designs in terms of display technique used and how they are combined. The insights we gained from this framework then guided our inventions and the human-centered innovation process we use to iteratively invent. Our designs are based on an understanding of user work practices. We also developed a simple ATC simulator that we used for rapid experimentation and evaluation of design ideas. We expect that if this project continues, the effort in Year 2 and 3 will be focus on maturing the concepts and employment in a operational laboratory settings

Reti Wireless Cognitive Cooperanti su TV White e Grey Spaces

Wireless networks rapidly became a fundamental pillar of everyday activities. Whether at work or elsewhere, people often benefits from always-on connections. This trend is likely to increase, and hence actual technologies struggle to cope with the increase in traffic demand. To this end, Cognitive Wireless Networks have been studied. These networks aim at a better utilization of the spectrum, by understanding the environment in which they operate, and adapt accordingly. In particular recently national regulators opened up consultations on the opportunistic use of the TV bands, which became partially free due to the digital TV switch over. In this work, we focus on the indoor use of of TVWS. Interesting use cases like smart metering and WiFI like connectivity arise, and are studied and compared against state of the art technology. New measurements for TVWS networks will be presented and evaluated, and fundamental characteristics of the signal derived. Then, building on that, a new model of spectrum sharing, which takes into account also the height from the terrain, is presented and evaluated in a real scenario. The principal limits and performance of TVWS operated networks will be studied for two main use cases, namely Machine to Machine communication and for wireless sensor networks, particularly for the smart grid scenario. The outcome is that TVWS are certainly interesting to be studied and deployed, in particular when used as an additional offload for other wireless technologies. Seeing TVWS as the only wireless technology on a device is harder to be seen: the uncertainity in channel availability is the major drawback of opportunistic networks, since depending on the primary network channel allocation might lead in having no channels available for communication. TVWS can be effectively exploited as offloading solutions, and most of the contributions presented in this work proceed in this direction

ECOS 2012

The 8-volume set contains the Proceedings of the 25th ECOS 2012 International Conference, Perugia, Italy, June 26th to June 29th, 2012. ECOS is an acronym for Efficiency, Cost, Optimization and Simulation (of energy conversion systems and processes), summarizing the topics covered in ECOS: Thermodynamics, Heat and Mass Transfer, Exergy and Second Law Analysis, Process Integration and Heat Exchanger Networks, Fluid Dynamics and Power Plant Components, Fuel Cells, Simulation of Energy Conversion Systems, Renewable Energies, Thermo-Economic Analysis and Optimisation, Combustion, Chemical Reactors, Carbon Capture and Sequestration, Building/Urban/Complex Energy Systems, Water Desalination and Use of Water Resources, Energy Systems- Environmental and Sustainability Issues, System Operation/ Control/Diagnosis and Prognosis, Industrial Ecology