A Thrust-Elevator Interaction Criterion for Aircraft Optimal Longitudinal Control

The aim of this research is to investigate the combined use of throttle and aerodynamic control vanes for aircraft optimal control. A new disruptive aircraft configuration concept is presented, featuring control vanes downstream of two rear-mounted ducted propellers. The aerodynamic interaction between the horizontal vane and the throttle is analyzed in the scope of a longitudinal control study. A static criterion is proposed to discern the efficiency of the interaction, with respect to a generic pitch command. A traditional control allocation logic is used to exploit the throttle as a secondary pitch effector, and a modified version based on the interaction criterion is proposed; its behavior is tested through an open-loop design space exploration of actuator time constants and effectors prioritization weights. A flexible control system architecture is designed to compare the aircraft closed-loop response in conjunction with a phugoid damper loop. Results show that the best tracking performance is obtained with pilot commands allocated to the elevator, and phugoid damper commands to both elevator and throttle. The traditional allocation method achieves the best tracking performance at the expense of the largest control effort. The modified allocation alleviates the effort while still achieving better performance than the non-coupled control.Flight Performance and Propulsio

Assessment of Sub-scale Designs for Scaled Flight Testing

Sub-scale Flight Testing (SFT) is potentially useful in predicting aircraft flight behaviour, especially in the case of unconventional designs for which legacy information is unavailable and wind tunnel tests are unable to predict aircraft dynamics. A necessary condition for SFT is the design of properly scaled models. However, even in case of perfect scaling, the sub-scale model needs adequate flight performance and handling qualities to enable the execution of flight tests. Thus, the (static and dynamic) stability and control (S&C) and handling qualities (HQ) of sub-scale designs should be evaluated accurately as well as quickly, to allow conceptual design iterations. To this purpose, we propose the use of a 3D panel method (3DPM) for the generation of the non-linear aerodynamic database, in combination with a non-linear flight dynamics analysis. Two main challenges affect the proposed approach. The first concerns the validity of the low-fidelity 3DPM data for the assessment of the sub-scale design S&C and HQ. The second is about the time consuming and error-prone pre/post-processing activity demanded by the hundreds of analysis cases for the aerodynamic database generation. The first issue is investigated by predicting the longitudinal S&C performance and HQ of a sub-scale design using 3DPM analysis and comparing them with the prediction from wind-tunnel test (static) data supplemented by (dynamic) data from 3DPM. Both models appear trimmable and stable and the difference in their HQ are quantified, thus verifying the suitability of 3DPM analysis for sub-scale design assessment. The pre/post-processing challenge is tackled by the development of a knowledge-based engineering application to automate the aerodynamics database generation, reducing the time needed for geometry modeling, discretization and postprocessing of hundreds of cases from weeks to hours. The proposed methodology and its flexibility are demonstrated in this paper, where a commercial 3DPM code and an in-house developed non-linear flight dynamics analysis tool have been used to assess two sub-scale designs, one conventional and one based on the box-wing configuration.Flight Performance and Propulsio

3D Pilot: Eindrapport werkgroep 3D Use cases

GIS TechnologyOTB Research Institute for the Built Environmen

The Faculty of Aerospace Engineering at Delft University of Technology

The Faculty of Aerospace Engineering is one of eight faculties at Delft University of Technology. It is one of the most comprehensive academic and innovation communities worldwide focusing on aerospace engineering. Its 120 professors and 70 researchers are mentoring and teaching around 2,800 BSc/MSc students and more than 350 PhD candidates while working in all aerospace disciplines. It’s a powerhouse in aerospace education, research, and innovation, within the top 10 in the world. Our priority themes? Sustainable aerospace, digital transformation, including Artificial Intelligence, bio-inspired engineering and smart instruments and systems. Here’s our story.Aerospace Structures & Computational MechanicsStructural Integrity & CompositesCommunication LRFlight Performance and PropulsionControl & OperationsAerodynamics, Wind Energy & PropulsionSupport Aerospace EngineeringSpace EngineeringAerospace Engineerin

Duurzame gebiedsontwikkeling: Doe de tienkamp!

Deze publicatie heeft tot doel een brede benadering van gebiedsontwikkeling te stimuleren, waarin duurzaamheid een vanzelfsprekend én belangrijk aspect is. Idealiter is gebiedsontwikkeling per definitie duurzame gebiedsontwikkeling. Elk gebied is anders en elk project is anders. Duurzame gebiedsontwikkeling is maatwerk. Dat maakt dat een handreiking nooit (te) specifiek kan zijn. Onze inzet is nadrukkelijk niet gericht op het topdown normeren van duurzame gebiedsontwikkeling of het introduceren van keurmerken; we willen daar juist verre van blijven. Wel kan een handreiking inspiratie en bouwstenen opleveren, die de gebruikers ervan vervolgens situatiespecifiek vertalen.Real Estate and HousingArchitectur

Integrative technology hubs for urban food-energy-water nexuses and cost-benefit-risk tradeoffs (II): Design strategies for urban sustainability

The Food-Energy-Water (FEW) nexus for urban sustainability needs to be analyzed via an integrative rather than a sectoral or silo approach, reflecting the ongoing transition from separate infrastructure systems to an integrated social-ecological-infrastructure system. As technology hubs can provide food, energy, water resources via decentralized and/or centralized facilities, there is an acute need to optimize FEW infrastructures by considering cost-benefit-risk tradeoffs with respect to multiple sustainability indicators. This paper identifies, categorizes, and analyzes global trends with respect to contemporary FEW technology metrics that highlights the possible optimal integration of a broad spectrum of technology hubs for possible cost-benefit-risk tradeoffs. The challenges related to multiscale and multiagent modeling processes for the simulation of urban FEW systems were discussed with respect to the aspects of scaling-up, optimization process, and risk assessment. Our review reveals that this field is growing at a rapid pace and the previous selection of analytical methodologies, nexus criteria, and sustainability indicators largely depended on individual FEW nexus conditions disparately, and full-scale cost-benefit-risk tradeoffs were very rare. Therefore, the potential full-scale technology integration in three ongoing cases of urban FEW systems in Miami (the United States), Marseille (France), and Amsterdam (the Netherlands) were demonstrated in due purpose finally.Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.Water Resource

Integrative technology hubs for urban food-energy-water nexuses and cost-benefit-risk tradeoffs (I): Global trends and technology metrics

The Food-Energy-Water (FEW) nexus for urban sustainability needs to be analyzed via an integrative rather than a sectoral or silo approach, reflecting the ongoing transition from separate infrastructure systems to an integrated social-ecological-infrastructure system. As technology hubs can provide food, energy, water resources via decentralized and/or centralized facilities, there is an acute need to optimize FEW infrastructures by considering cost-benefit-risk tradeoffs with respect to multiple sustainability indicators. This paper identifies, categorizes, and analyzes global trends with respect to contemporary FEW technology metrics that highlights the possible optimal integration of a broad spectrum of technology hubs for possible cost-benefit-risk tradeoffs. The challenges related to multiscale and multiagent modeling processes for the simulation of urban FEW systems were discussed with respect to the aspects of scaling-up, optimization process, and risk assessment. Our review reveals that this field is growing at a rapid pace and the previous selection of analytical methodologies, nexus criteria, and sustainability indicators largely depended on individual FEW nexus conditions disparately, and full-scale cost-benefit-risk tradeoffs were very rare. Therefore, the potential full-scale technology integration in three ongoing cases of urban FEW systems in Miami (the United States), Marseille (France), and Amsterdam (the Netherlands) were demonstrated in due purpose finally.Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.Water Resource

Weather radar for urban hydrological applications: Lessons learnt and research needs identified from 4 pilot catchments in North-West Europe

This study investigates the impact of rainfall estimates of different spatial resolutions on the hydraulic outputs of the models of four of the EU RainGain project’s pilot locations (the Cranbrook catchment (UK), the Herent catchment (Belgium), the Morée-Sausset catchment (France) and the Kralingen District (The Netherlands)). Two storm events, one convective and one stratiform, measured by a polarimetric X-band radar located in Cabauw (The Netherlands) were selected for analysis. The original radar estimates, at 100 m and 1 min resolutions, were aggregated to a spatial resolution of 1000 m. These estimates were then applied to the high-resolution semi-distributed hydraulic models of the four urban catchments, all of which have similar size (between 5 and 8 km2), but different morphological, hydrological and hydraulic characteristics. When doing so, methodologies for standardising rainfall inputs and making results comparable were implemented. The response of the different catchments to rainfall inputs of varying spatial resolution is analysed in the light of model configuration, catchment and storm characteristics. Rather surprisingly, the results show that for the two events under consideration the spatial resolution (i.e.100 m vs 1000 m) of rainfall inputs does not have a significant influence on the outputs of urban drainage models. The present study will soon be extended to more storms as well as model structures and resolutions, with the final aim of identifying critical spatial-temporal resolutions for urban catchment modelling in relation to catchment and storm event characteristicsWater ManagementCivil Engineering and Geoscience

Impact of spatial and temporal resolution of rainfall inputs on urban hydrodynamic modelling outputs: A multi-catchment investigation

Urban catchments are typically characterised by high spatial variability and fast runoff processes resulting in short response times. Hydrological analysis of such catchments requires high resolution precipitation and catchment information to properly represent catchment response. This study investigated the impact of rainfall input resolution on the outputs of detailed hydrodynamic models of seven urban catchments in North-West Europe. The aim was to identify critical rainfall resolutions for urban catchments to properly characterise catchment response. Nine storm events measured by a dual-polarimetric X-band weather radar, located in the Cabauw Experimental Site for Atmospheric Research (CESAR) of the Netherlands, were selected for analysis. Based on the original radar estimates, at 100 m and 1 min resolutions, 15 different combinations of coarser spatial and temporal resolutions, up to 3000 m and 10 min, were generated. These estimates were then applied to the operational semi-distributed hydrodynamic models of the urban catchments, all of which have similar size (between 3 and 8 km2), but different morphological, hydrological and hydraulic characteristics. When doing so, methodologies for standardising model outputs and making results comparable were implemented. Results were analysed in the light of storm and catchment characteristics. Three main features were observed in the results: (1) the impact of rainfall input resolution decreases rapidly as catchment drainage area increases; (2) in general, variations in temporal resolution of rainfall inputs affect hydrodynamic modelling results more strongly than variations in spatial resolution; (3) there is a strong interaction between the spatial and temporal resolution of rainfall input estimates. Based upon these results, methods to quantify the impact of rainfall input resolution as a function of catchment size and spatial–temporal characteristics of storms are proposed and discussed.Geoscience & Remote SensingCivil Engineering and Geoscience