Flight-test measurement of the noise reduction of a jet transport delayed flap approach procedure

A delayed flap approach procedure was flight tested using the NASA CV-990 airplane to measure and analyze the noise produced beneath the flight path. Three other types of landing approaches were also flight tested to provide a comparison of the noise reduction benefits to the delayed flap approach. The conventional type of approach was used as a baseline to compare the effectiveness of the other approaches. The decelerating approach is a variation of the delayed flap approach. A detailed comparison of the ground perceived noise generated during the approaches is presented. For this comparison, the measured noise data were normalized to compensate for variations in aircraft weight and winds that occurred during the flight tests. The data show that the reduced flap approach offers some noise reduction, while the delayed flap and decelerating approaches offer significant noise reductions over the conventional approach

Sum-of-squares of polynomials approach to nonlinear stability of fluid flows: an example of application

With the goal of providing the first example of application of a recently proposed method, thus demonstrating its ability to give results in principle, global stability of a version of the rotating Couette flow is examined. The flow depends on the Reynolds number and a parameter characterising the magnitude of the Coriolis force. By converting the original Navier-Stokes equations to a finite-dimensional uncertain dynamical system using a partial Galerkin expansion, high-degree polynomial Lyapunov functionals were found by sum-of-squares-of-polynomials optimization. It is demonstrated that the proposed method allows obtaining the exact global stability limit for this flow in a range of values of the parameter characterising the Coriolis force. Outside this range a lower bound for the global stability limit was obtained, which is still better than the energy stability limit. In the course of the study several results meaningful in the context of the method used were also obtained. Overall, the results obtained demonstrate the applicability of the recently proposed approach to global stability of the fluid flows. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first case in which global stability of a fluid flow has been proved by a generic method for the value of a Reynolds number greater than that which could be achieved with the energy stability approach

Flow regimes in a trapped vortex cell

This paper presents results of an experimental investigation on the flow in a trapped vortex cell, embedded into a flat plate, and interacting with a zero-pressure-gradient boundary layer. The objective of the work is to describe the flow features and elucidate some of the governing physical mechanisms, in the light of recent investigations on flow separation control using vortex cells. Hot-wire velocity measurements of the shear layer bounding the cell and of the boundary layers upstream and downstream are reported, together with spectral and correlation analyses of wall-pressure fluctuation measurements. Smoke flow visualisations provide qualitative insight into some relevant features of the internal flow, namely a large-scale flow unsteadiness and possible mechanisms driving the rotation of the vortex core. Results are presented for two very different regimes: a low-Reynolds-number case where the incoming boundary layer is laminar and its momentum thickness is small compared to the cell opening, and a moderately high-Reynolds-number case, where the incoming boundary layer is turbulent and the ratio between the momentum thickness and the opening length is significantly larger than in the first case. Implications of the present findings to flow control applications of trapped vortex cells are also discussed

Expensive control of long-time averages using sum of squares and Its application to a laminar wake flow

The paper presents a nonlinear state-feedback con- trol design approach for long-time average cost control, where the control effort is assumed to be expensive. The approach is based on sum-of-squares and semi-definite programming techniques. It is applicable to dynamical systems whose right-hand side is a polynomial function in the state variables and the controls. The key idea, first described but not implemented in (Chernyshenko et al. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A, 372, 2014), is that the difficult problem of optimizing a cost function involving long-time averages is replaced by an optimization of the upper bound of the same average. As such, controller design requires the simultaneous optimization of both the control law and a tunable function, similar to a Lyapunov function. The present paper introduces a method resolving the well-known inherent non-convexity of this kind of optimization. The method is based on the formal assumption that the control is expensive, from which it follows that the optimal control is small. The resulting asymptotic optimization problems are convex. The derivation of all the polynomial coefficients in the controller is given in terms of the solvability conditions of state-dependent linear and bilinear inequalities. The proposed approach is applied to the problem of designing a full-information feedback controller that mitigates vortex shedding in the wake of a circular cylinder in the laminar regime via rotary oscillations. Control results on a reduced-order model of the actuated wake and in direct numerical simulation are reported

Finding unstable periodic orbits: A hybrid approach with polynomial optimization

We present a novel method to compute unstable periodic orbits (UPOs) that optimize the infinite-time average of a given quantity for polynomial ODE systems. The UPO search procedure relies on polynomial optimization to construct nonnegative polynomials whose sublevel sets approximately localize parts of the optimal UPO, and that can be used to implement a simple yet effective control strategy to reduce the UPO's instability. Precisely, we construct a family of controlled ODE systems, parameterized by a scalar k, such that the original ODE system is recovered for k=0 and such that the optimal orbit is less unstable, or even stabilized, for k>0. Periodic orbits for the controlled system can often be more easily converged with traditional methods, and numerical continuation in k allows one to recover optimal UPOs for the original system. The effectiveness of this approach is illustrated on three low-dimensional ODE systems with chaotic dynamics

Meteorological variability and groundwater quality: Examples in different hydrogeological settings

Rainfall and temperature variability causes changes in groundwater recharge that can also influence groundwater quality by different processes. The aim of this study is the analysis of the hydrogeochemical variations over time due to meteorological variability in two different study areas in Italy: an alluvial aquifer in the Piedmont Po plain and an alluvial-pyroclastic aquifer in the Campanian plain. The examined plains show groundwater with natural quality not satisfying the European drinking water standards, or anthropogenic contamination. The peculiar natural quality is due, in the Campanian plain, to the closeness of volcanic areas, and to the presence of reducing conditions. In Piedmont plain a test site is characterized by a point-source contamination by heavy metals, due to the presence of past industrial activities. In all the examined areas there is a diffuse nitrate contamination. The fluctuations of the ions As, F, Fe, Mn, Cr VI, NO3, and Cl were analyzed and compared, using statistical methods, with the variations over time in precipitation, temperature, and piezometric levels, sometimes significant. Results highlight the importance of the groundwater and meteorological monitoring and the key role of the recharge variation in the hydrogeochemical processes. The linking degree between rainfall/temperature variability and hydrogeochemistry is variable, in function of the typology of chemical species, their origin, and of the aquifer characteristics. The fluctuation of climate variables determines sudden changes in the geochemistry of shallow unconfined aquifers (e.g., in the Piedmont plain), while semiconfined or confined aquifers (e.g., in the Volturno-Regi Lagni plain) react with a greater delay to these variations. Moreover, natural quality is more affected by climatic variations than anthropogenic contamination, which is the result of multiple environmental and anthropic factors

Geophysical methods to support correct water sampling locations for salt dilution gauging

To improve water management design, particularly in irrigation areas, it is important to evaluate the baseline state of the water resources, including canal discharge. Salt dilution gauging is a traditional and well-documented technique in this respect. The complete mixing of salt used for dilution gauging is required; this condition is difficult to test or verify and, if not fulfilled, is the largest source of uncertainty in the discharge calculation. In this paper, a geophysical technique (FERT, fast electrical resistivity tomography) is proposed for imaging the distribution of the salt plume used for dilution gauging at every point along a sampling cross section. With this imaging, complete mixing can be verified. If the mixing is not complete, the image created by FERT can also provide a possible guidance for selecting water-sampling locations in the sampling cross section. A water multi-sampling system prototype aimed to potentially take into account concentration variability is also proposed and tested. The results reported in the paper show that FERT provides a three-dimensional image of the dissolved salt plume and that this can potentially help in the selection of water sampling points