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Mechanical Engineering

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Brigham Young University

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Urban air mobility

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Articles 1 - 6 of 6

Full-Text Articles in Engineering

Review Of Computational Models For Large-Scale Mdao Of Urban Air Mobility Concepts, Darshan Sarojini, Marius L. Ruh, Jiayao Yan, Luca Scotzniovsky, Nicholas C. Orndorff, Ru Xiang, Han Zhao, Joshua J. Krokowski, Michael Warner, Sebastiaan Pc Van Schie, Ashley Cronk, Alexandre T. R. Guibert, Jeffrey T. Chambers, Lauren Wolfe, Rachel Doring, Robin Despins, Cibin Joseph, Ryan Anderson, Andrew Ning, Hyunjune Gill, Seongkyu Lee, Zeyu Cheng, Zhi Cao, Chunting Mi, Y Shirley Meng, Christopher Silva, Jiun-Shyan Chen, H. Alicia Kim, John T. Hwang Jan 2024

Review Of Computational Models For Large-Scale Mdao Of Urban Air Mobility Concepts, Darshan Sarojini, Marius L. Ruh, Jiayao Yan, Luca Scotzniovsky, Nicholas C. Orndorff, Ru Xiang, Han Zhao, Joshua J. Krokowski, Michael Warner, Sebastiaan Pc Van Schie, Ashley Cronk, Alexandre T. R. Guibert, Jeffrey T. Chambers, Lauren Wolfe, Rachel Doring, Robin Despins, Cibin Joseph, Ryan Anderson, Andrew Ning, Hyunjune Gill, Seongkyu Lee, Zeyu Cheng, Zhi Cao, Chunting Mi, Y Shirley Meng, Christopher Silva, Jiun-Shyan Chen, H. Alicia Kim, John T. Hwang

Faculty Publications

The advent of Urban Air Mobility (UAM) has necessitated a paradigm shift in aircraft design from traditional regression methods to physics-based analysis and the use of modern computational methods. This paper explores the intricacies of UAM aircraft design, acknowledging the limitations of historical empirical equations and advocating for the use of physics-based tools in the early stages of the design process. It underscores the importance of Multidisciplinary Design, Analysis, and Optimization (MDAO) as a means to integrate physics-based tools for conceptual design, facilitating decisions on configuration and sizing. The paper presents a comprehensive survey and review of computational models across …


Large Eddy Simulation For Empirical Modeling Of The Wake Of Three Urban Air Mobility Vehicles, Denis-Gabriel Caprace, Andrew Ning Apr 2023

Large Eddy Simulation For Empirical Modeling Of The Wake Of Three Urban Air Mobility Vehicles, Denis-Gabriel Caprace, Andrew Ning

Faculty Publications

Recent advances in urban air mobility have driven the development of many new VTOL concepts. These vehicles often feature original designs departing from the conventional helicopter configuration. Due to their novelty, the characteristics of the super-vortices forming in the wake of such aircraft are unknown. However, these vortices may endanger any other vehicle evolving in their close proximity, owing to potentially large induced velocities. Therefore, improved knowledge about the wakes of VTOL vehicles is needed to guarantee safe urban air mobility operations. In this work, we study the wake of three VTOL aircraft in cruise by means of large eddy …


Low-Fidelity Design Optimization And Parameter Sensitivity Analysis Of Tilt-Rotor Evtol Electric Propulsion Systems, Tyler Critchfield, Andrew Ning Jan 2023

Low-Fidelity Design Optimization And Parameter Sensitivity Analysis Of Tilt-Rotor Evtol Electric Propulsion Systems, Tyler Critchfield, Andrew Ning

Faculty Publications

Urban air mobility requires a multidisciplinary approach to tackle the important chal- lenges facing the design of these aircraft. This work uses low-to-mid fidelity tools to model rotor aerodynamics, blade structures, vehicle aerodynamics, and electric propulsion for a tilt-rotor electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft. We use gradient-based design optimization and extensive parameter sensitivity analysis to explore the design space and complex tradeoffs of tilt-rotor distributed electric propulsion systems.


Effects Of Rotor-Airframe Interaction On The Aeromechanics And Wake Of A Quadcopter In Forward Flight, Denis-Gabriel Caprace, Andrew Ning, Philippe Chatelain, Grégoire Winckelmans Sep 2022

Effects Of Rotor-Airframe Interaction On The Aeromechanics And Wake Of A Quadcopter In Forward Flight, Denis-Gabriel Caprace, Andrew Ning, Philippe Chatelain, Grégoire Winckelmans

Faculty Publications

From small drones to large Urban Air Mobility vehicles, the market of vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft is currently booming. Modern VTOL designs feature a variety of configurations involving rotors, lifting surfaces and bluff bodies. The resulting aerodynamics are highly impacted by the interactions between those components and their wakes. This has consequences on the aircraft performance and on the downstream wake. Studying the effects of those interactions through CFD can inform the development of cheaper numerical models. In this work, we focus on the interaction between rotors and bluff bodies based on the example of a generic quadcopter …


Large Eddy Simulation Of The Wakes Of Three Urban Air Mobility Vehicles, Denis-Gabriel Caprace, Andrew Ning May 2022

Large Eddy Simulation Of The Wakes Of Three Urban Air Mobility Vehicles, Denis-Gabriel Caprace, Andrew Ning

Faculty Publications

Recent advances in urban air mobility have driven the development of many new VTOL concepts. These vehicles often feature original designs and futuristic shapes. Due to their novelty, the wake characteristics of such aircraft are unknown. However, large wake-induced velocities, should they exist, may be dangerous for any other vehicle evolving in their close proximity. Therefore, improved knowledge about the wakes of VTOL vehicles is needed to guarantee the safety of urban air mobility operations. In this work, we study the wake of three VTOL aircraft in cruise by means of large eddy simulation. We present a two-stage numerical procedure …


High-Fidelity Modeling Of Multirotor Aerodynamic Interactions For Aircraft Design, Eduardo Alvarez, Andrew Ning Aug 2020

High-Fidelity Modeling Of Multirotor Aerodynamic Interactions For Aircraft Design, Eduardo Alvarez, Andrew Ning

Faculty Publications

Electric aircraft technology has enabled the use of multiple rotors in novel concepts for urban air mobility. However, multirotor configurations introduce strong aerodynamic and aeroacoustic interactions that are not captured through conventional aircraft design tools. In this paper we explore the capability of the viscous vortex particle method (VPM) to model multirotor aerodynamic interactions at a computational cost suitable for conceptual design. A VPM-based rotor model is introduced along with recommendations for numerical stability and computational efficiency. Validation of the individual rotor is presented in both hovering and forward-flight configurations at low, moderate, and high Reynolds numbers. Hovering multirotor predictions …