AERONAUTICAL / AEROSPACE Supervisor: Dr Doug Auld

Rm N310, Bldg J11, ph: 9351 2336 ; doug.auld@sydney.edu.au

1. DSMC computations of gas flow (subsonic flow boundary conditions)

2. M

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ion for smoke visualisation tunnel.

3. Experimental or CFD development and design of wind turbines

4. Validation of stalled aerofoil data

All areas are wide ranging and hence allow the possibility of several students

working in complementary topics in one of these areas.

Professor Grant Steven grant.steven@sydney.edu.au

grant.steven@strand7.com

Dr K C Wong kc.wong@sydney.edu.au

e-mail for more information

Design Software for Extreme UAVs

As you are aware UAVs are of great interest at the moment. The Aeronautics group at Sydney University has a long history of design and build experience in this field. Recent survey work has revealed that there is much interest in UAVs with a great variety of extreme performance. Rather than select one part of this design space we would like to start to create computational design tools that can facilitate a wide range of activity and performance. This software would include flight performance, control, aerodynamics and structural modules. For some of these the data is incomplete but we would nevertheless like to make a start. The task would involve scripting in Matlab or VB with as much data and analysis as we can get included.

Software to aid understanding of Structural Analysis in the High School Design and Technology curriculum Professor Grant Steven grant.steven@sydney.edu.au grant.steven@strand7.com e-mail for more information

The Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE) have developed a very popular experimental laboratory in the renewable energy area which tours about 500 high schools each year. The STELR (www.stelr.org.au) Program is a hands-on, inquiry-based, in-curriculum program designed for Year 9 or Year 10 students, on the theme of global warming. They wish to develop material in the structural analysis area that aids students in the appreciation and understanding of this important subject in the area of design.

The research would comprise of looking at the High School curriculum and developing software that drives the Strand7 FEA engine to engender appreciation and encourage enquiry about how to make designs perform better.

The work would involving writing VB or Matlab script that generates GUIs and builds structures and examines the results. The Application Programming Interface (API) drives the Strand7 engine.

To undertake this important task you must enjoy programming and be interesting in the training of future engineers.

Design optimization for wing type structures that targets the ratio of bending to torsional stiffness (Honors project) Professor Grant Steven grant.steven@sydney.edu.au grant.steven@strand7.com Dr Gareth Vio gareth.vio@sydney.edu.au e-mail for more information

There are many strong reasons that the structure of a wing box is such that the ratio of the bending to the torsional stiffness achieve certain values. Traditionally this has never been studied from an optimization perspective and normally the bending stiffness is optimized and the torsional stiffness follows form this. In the past work has been done in the department that uses a process called Group Evolutionary Structural Optimization to maximize only the specific stiffness of structures, see some examples below. In the present research the same techniques will be used but with the very different objective as described in the title. There will be a significant coding activity in this project in the Matlab or VB driving an API for the Strand7 FEA code.

Simulating the Action of Sporting Equipment for Maximum Performance (Several potential honors projects) Professor Grant Steven grant.steven@sydney.edu.au grant.steven@strand7.com e-mail for more information

Long before Finite Element Analysis was developed, people were participating in sports and as competition intensified is became clear that for many sports, the equipment used played as important a part in performance as did the athlete. With the use of modern materials and manufacturing processes there is always scope for maximizing the performance of sporting equipment. Traditionally improvements were incremental, as athletes fed-back suggestions to manufacturers and new prototypes were built and tested. Given the cost of tooling for many of the

current manufacturing methods, carbon fibre with resin infusion to mention one, it is clear that such build and test iterations are not as preferable given the potential of limited success and high cost. Modern simulation techniques are capable of examining a “day–in–the-life” of an object and from an examination of the envelope of response the most sensitive regions can be detected. Iteration on the design variables, provided they remain within any constraints, physical or otherwise, can be incorporated to investigate their effect on performance. Methods such as Design of Experiments (DOE) and Response Surface Analysis (RSA), genetic algorithms (GA) and Monte-Carlo Methods are being increasingly applied to achieve optimisation goals For many sports the outcome depends in the interaction between the sportsperson and the equipment; boot with ball; bat with ball; bow and arrow, and so on. Previous research by my students has looked at tennis, cricket, and soccer. Although interesting results were obtained and valuable learning took place there are still many unanswered questions.

Pictures of ball impact in centre of tennis racquet and off-centre strike of cricket ball on bat.

Selecting this area for a project will involve selection of a sport, identification of desired improvements, leaning non-linear transient Finite Element Analysis with contact and other simulation skills.

Optimization of Shear Centre Location

Project/thesis topic

Supervisor Prof Grant Steven (grant.steven@sydney.edu.au)

The shear centre plays an important role in the analysis and design of aircraft structures. It is a

difficult quantity to calculate and on a long slender wing structure it can be very important to have a

certain quite precise relationship between the location of the shear centre, the centre of

aerodynamic pressure and the flexural centre

This thesis/project will look at the process for the determination of the shear centre for complex

aircraft type structures and methods for prescribing its position relative to other geometric aspects.

A kind of evolutionary algorithm will be used for this.

Thesis/Projects – Ben Thornber (ben.thornber@sydney.edu.au)

Interested students should first come to see me, and following the discussion if you are certain that

you are keen to do the project, then send an email outlining your interest in the project. For

students interested in learning the ‘nuts and bolts’ of CFD, there are also several possible projects

exploring the performance of state of the art numerical methods for fluid dynamics.

(1) Design and/or Analysis of a Chemical Rocket Nozzle for an Apogee Engine.

We have an ongoing collaboration with a UK/US propulsion systems company who are

working on their next generation of thrusters. There are several aspects to this thesis which

are available for students, namely the analysis of the design of a new contour for a thruster,

an analysis of the impact of mixture fraction (fuel/oxidiser ratio) on the performance of a

specific nozzle design, and heat transfer predictions.

(2) Investigation of the Flow around a Hemisphere

This project has been suggested by collaborators at DSTO who are interested in

understanding the impact of proturberances on aerodynamic performance and/or structural

vibration. Such hemispheres are very common on modern aircraft, to house cameras or

other optical devices for example. There are several interesting challenges, namely

unsteady vortex shedding from the back of the hemisphere, and the behaviour of flow

dependent on the thickness of the incoming boundary layer. We will investigate this using

CFD. The ideal student will have a background/affinity for CFD and will develop strong

analytical skills.

(3) Simulation of an Engine Precooler Matrix for a Mach 5 Vehicle

The precooled jet engine under development by Reaction Engines Ltd. relies on a very

compact heat exchanger to cool the incoming air. Perhaps surprisingly, the air passing

through the precooler is incompressible, and at a relatively low Reynolds number. We have

access to experimental data on a scaled up model of the precooler elements which shows

that the flow is unsteady, yet CFD to date implies that it should be steady. This thesis will

explore whether modern CFD methods can capture this unsteadiness, and elucidate the

source of the unsteadiness in the matrix. We will also aim to produce accurate predictions of

pressure drop, heat conduction and flow development length. The ideal student will have a

background/affinity for CFD and will develop strong analytical and programming skills.

(4) State of the Art CFD Modelling for Laminar/Turbulent flows

A key engineering challenge is the development of aerofoils which can sustain laminar flow.

However, this makes the simulation (and thus the initial design) much more difficult as

modern turbulence models struggle to represent the transition between laminar and

transitional flows. This thesis can be either an exploration of methods of simulating

transitional flows in FLUENT comparing against experimental data, or the development and

validation of transitional models in an in-house code. The ideal student will have a

background/affinity for CFD for both projects, and an ability/willingness to learn Fortran to

use the in-house code. The student would work closely with our research group which has a

strong focus on modelling of such flows, and would have the opportunity to use our cluster

to undertake larger scale computations of more challenging geometries, such as the above

high lift configuration.

(5) Ability of RANS models to capture vortex bursting

F1 teams are aiming to improve their ability to capture vortex bursting. The location of a

vortex burst, and it’s subsequent behaviour can influence the underbody Cp distributions

and performance of the rear end of the vehicle. This project will employ a simplified

configuration to explore the ability of ANSYS to capture this phenomenon. It is expected that

experimental data of this simplified configuration will be available. The ideal student will

have a background/affinity for CFD and will develop strong analytical skills.

(6) Investigation of Cavity Aeroacoustics

This project has been suggested by collaborators at DSTO who are interested in

understanding the aeroacoustic behaviour of cavities at transonic velocities. Cavity noise has

a major impact in several fields as a prime source of noise in aircraft wheel bays, weapons

bays, gaps between train carriages and open sunroofs/windows on cars. At high speeds the

noise levels are substantial (greater than 150dB) and can be severely damaging. This thesis

will explore the variation of acoustic noise in a generic cavity to give detailed insight into

experiments conducted at DSTO. We will investigate this using our in-house high order

accurate Computational Fluid Dynamics, running on multiple cores on our local cluster.

(7) Drag Reduction Techniques for Automotive Bodies

This project will extend a previous thesis projects to investigate the use of small

aerodynamic strips on the rear of a vehicle body to reduce the overall vehicle drag. This has

the potential to reduce drag by several counts, however it’s applicability under practical

situations has yet to be demonstrated. This thesis will explore the physics of the problem

through RANS simulations to shed light onto the mechanism of drag, and how it could be

mitigated. This is of key importance in an industry where there is huge competition to

provide a vehicle with class-leading performance. The student will work closely with PhD

researchers in our research group, which will strongly complement their work

(8) High Speed Intake Design and Analysis

High speed intakes are designed to provide optimal total pressure recovery (efficiency) for a

given range of operating conditions. However, it must also survive the challenging

environment of a high speed flow, typically involving very high pressures and temperatures

at the surface. As such, design trade-offs must be made. This project explores some of the

challenges which face designers of axi-symmetric intakes for Mach 2 to Mach 5 operation,

utilising CFD. This project follows on from a successful project in the previous year, and is in

collaboration with an industrial partner.

(9) Rotorcraft Operations Close to Large Buildings and Ships

One of the most challenging manoeuvres which a helicopter pilot can undertake is to land

on a ship at sea, or a large building in poor weather conditions. Here we utilise CFD simulate

the wind flow over ships/buildings and analyse the impact of this flow on helicopter

operations. A particular focus is on helicopter operations close to the Australian Landing

Helicopter Dock (LHD). Here there would be several sub-thesis projects on (i) CFD study of

the LHD, (ii) Studies of the impact of wind velocities on rotorcraft operations, (iii) Novel

modelling of helicopter rotor blades within a CFD computation. This project is aligned with a

DST group project and the student would have the advantage of working alongside a PhD

student within our research group.

(10) Turbulent Mixing in Inertial Confinement Fusion

Inertial confinement Fusion involves compressing a small capsule of nuclear material (approx. 2mm

diameter) using very powerful lasers until it reaches the necessary temperature and pressures to

produce a nuclear fusion reaction. This is one possible route towards fusion energy production,

however it has many challenges, being addressed in part by a $5bn US project called the National

Ignition Facility. Within the group we have Australian Research Council project to address one

challenge, which is the effects of mixing of the capsule shell material with the nuclear material thus

causing a decrease in yield or lack of ignition. This thesis project will use state of the art

computational fluid dynamics working within our research group to examine the role of turbulent

mixing in Inertial Confinement Fusion. Complementary to this, we are hosting the top conference in

this field in 2016, hence you would be able to attend this.

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Prof Liyong Tong, Rm, N328, Bldg J11, 93516949, Liyong.tong@sydney.edu.au

1. Topology design optimization of a rib in aircraft wing box

An aircraft wing box typically consists of a number of ribs that are joined together by stringers and spars and

skin panels as shown in the Figure 1-1. While exterior configuration of an aircraft rib could be well determined

by the chosen airfoil, interior material distribution and structural topology could designed in a fashion to

achieve lightweight and performing structure. The thickness of an aircraft rib could be different at different

location and the cut-outs could take different shape. These selections could be determined by using topology

design optimization from initial design via finite element analysis to the final design as depicted in Fig 1-2.

Fig 1-1 Fig 1-2

This project aims to find optimum topological design for an aircraft rib panel that could be subjected to a range

of selected aerodynamic loads. For example, a particular airfoil section e.g. NACA-0012, could be selected

and several typical air dynamic load cases could be considered. The project involves the use of finite element

analysis software, interfacing with Matlab code developed and application to selected cases for topology design

of an aircraft rib structure. A prototype is expected to be manufactured and tested if sufficient progress is made

in the first semester.

2

2. Design and prototyping of pressure-actuated cellular structures for aircraft

morphing

Aircraft design is a multi-disciplinary, complex and challenging engineering task. Its general design cycle can

be broadly broken down into three technical phases, namely, the “Conceptual design”, “Preliminary structural

design”, and “Detailed structural design” as shown in Fig 2-1. There are a vast number of design requirements

for each phase.

The function of morphing may appear familiar as we all see the control surfaces on modern jets moves during

take-off, cruise and landing to achieve better flight performance. The challenging question is: Is it possible to

move other airframe components to drastically change aircraft configuration to perform specific requirements

during flight? How to define drastic configuration change, scope and extent? What are the limits? There are

numerous questions to be answered.

Fig 2-1

This project aims to extend the current hydraulic actuation technology to achieve drastic configuration change

and involves the use and design of pressurized cellular structures, which could be formed by an array of regular

hexagonal honeycomb cells or pouches or even skewed or irregular honeycomb cells (an example is shown in

Fig 2-2).

Fig 2-2

The project consists of design of cellular structural component in the form of leading or trailing edge in a

typical aircraft, or selected wing or fuselage sections. Finite element analysis of the designed cellular structure

will be conducted by considering different level of internal pressure applied. The deformation of the designed

structural will be analysed to understand the capability of morphing. A prototype of hardboard model with

pressure applied via balloons is expected to be used to demonstrate the proposed design.

Conceptual design

Input

Preliminary design Detailed design

Output

Input

Output

Output

Design requirements, e.g.•VTOL•stealth•flight ceiling•range… etc

A/C configuration, e.g.•body configuration•wing configuration

•number of engines•tail configuration… etc

Structural design•optimized structure•“down to the last rivet”

•manufacturing ready

Structural layout, e.g.•airframe flange spacing•spar arrangement•rib spacing

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3. Design and development of self-assembling mechanisms

Self-assembly is referred to as the spontaneous and reversible organization of units or

components into ordered structures via some sort of interactions. It can occur at different

length scales from nanometers to centimeters and is everywhere in nature. Some relevant

concepts drawn from natural contexts may have many applications in engineering. For

example, a modern civilian aircraft has movable parts e.g. control surfaces, a UAV may have

foldable wings. An aircraft can morph from one configuration to another via self-assembly.

One basic and useful form of self-assembly involves folding two dimensional materials into

three-dimensional (3D) structures and its reversal unfolding process. As in origami, folding

is capable of complex shapes and can be scaled to different sizes, and it can turn flat or

planar materials into 3D complex mechanisms. The figure below depicts: (a) an example of

compressing a 4 by 4 Miura-origami into a small part; and (b) a recent example of self-

folding a flat sheet of material into a complex 3D structures. Self folding requires

employment of one or more actuation methods to actuate the folding and unfolding

processes. It can be applied in remote, autonomous assembly as well as automation of

certain aspects of manufacturing.

Figure 3

This topic aims to explore basic inexpensive self-folding and self-unfolding techniques for

transforming planar material sheets to 3D structural mechanisms or machines. For example,

a self-folding hinge that could be actuated by an external stimulus, such as heat, electricity,

is considered as one of the key element in achieving the target of self-assembling

mechanisms. An ideal self-folding hinge should have the shape-memory characteristics.

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4. Ambient motion based broadband PZT energy harvester

This project aims to design and prototype of ambient motion based broadband PZT energy

harvesters. As shown in Figure 4(a), a typical arrangement of a PZT based energy harvester

consists of a cantilever beam with a concentrated mass at its tip and a PZT film attached

close to the clamped end. Motion of the clamped end vibrate the beam and generates tensile

and compressive strain the PZT material, which in turn generates electrical charge that could

be collected if an appropriate electric circuit system is chosen. Such system work for a

chosen narrow frequency band, and the energy harvested due to mall amplitude of a random

ambient motion of the base support may be too small to be useful. Figure 4(b) depicts a

broadband energy harvester, which has two added magnets that creates a bi-stable system

and could generate an oscillation with large amplitude resulting in higher and consistent

harvested energy output.

Motion-driven energy harvesters are attractive and inexhaustible replacements for

electrochemical batteries in low-power wireless or portable electronic devices, which could

have significant applications in a wide industry sectors, e.g., health care, electronics, etc.

Figure 4 depicts several examples of such types of applications in self-powered body-

mounted or implanted medical devices or wearable devices, and self-powered and low power

wireless sensors and wireless sensor networks.

It is anticipated that this project will involve both modelling analysis and design and

prototyping. The modelling analysis will be on dynamic analysis of a system with single

mass, spring, damper and two magnets. Prototyping will involve design, fabrication and

testing of mechanical and electrical system.

(a) (b)

(c) (d) (e)

Figure 4 (a) A schematic of an energy harvester; (b) a broadband energy harvester with

magnets; (c) self-powered knee replacement components; (d) a PZT dimorph and PVDF

stave (approximately 18 μW of power could be generated under a stress corresponding to

that produced by a human weighing 68 kg during normal walking), and (e) an integrated

piezoelectric energy harvester and wireless temperature and humidity sensing node.

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5. Multi-staged and reversible compact and high energy motion actuators

Actuators with large force and large stroke or high energy density are required for morphing

aircraft configuration or external shape. Hydraulic actuators currently used are heavy and

bulky, and hence light weight and compact actuators with high energy density are desirable.

This project aims to develop design basic concept for linear actuator based on snap-through

buckling of multiple structural components. The project involves numerical modeling and

design, and prototyping and testing. It is anticipated that: (a) finite element analysis software

will be used to conduct the necessary nonlinear buckling analysis; (b) selected designs will

be fabricated using 3D printer available in the school and experimentally tested; and (c) a

correlation between the analysis and test results be conducted.

As an illustrative example, Figure 5 depicts selected existing designs that could be

considered as the benchmarks and fabricated before the analysis, and how the designed

components buckle under compression. This project will explore ways of restoring the

collapsed structural components by using the elastic energy trapped in the buckled

components with limited input.

(a)

(b)

Figure 5

These types of actuators could be potentially used in aircraft wings to create smart ribs that

can change its chord-wise height during cruise.

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6. Design of shape adaptable rotor blade airfoil section using smart material based

actuators

Morphing of rotor blade airfoil section is about actively changing the airfoil section

shape using compact actuators, such as PZT, SMA based actuators, to achieve active

airflow control for enhanced flight performance. This project aims to look into possible

solution to design and analysis of shape adaptable NACA-0012 airfoil section with a

rigid spar using smart material based actuators. Finite element based numerical

simulations are to be performed for achieving desired airfoil shapes.

7. Digital image correlation for full field measurement

This project will offer an opportunity for a student who is keen in

developing/implementing and verifying Matlab based software that is capable of

performing digital image correlation between two images to extract relevant structural

movement. It is expected that DIC software will be used to facilitate measurement of

selected adhesive properties in bonded joints.

8. Controlling the uncontrollable: design of soft actuators

9. Shape changing structure actuated with osmotic pressure

This project aims to extend an existing in-house UAV design tool with higher fidelity models.

The current tool uses lower level modelling of all disciplines. As part of this thesis you need to link the existing tool to higher fidelity

aerodynamic and structures tools like Tranair and NASTRAN.

Once integrated those tools will be used in an optimisation environ-ment to determine the optimum size and shape of a medium altitude long endurance UAV

UNMANNED AIRCRAFT DESIGN

Performance data for small propellers is virtually non-existent and a lot of the required geometry data needed for simulations is absent.

Various thesis projects are avai-lable in this domain to improve understanding of the dominant flow phenomena of small pro-pellers:

- 360 degree AoA airfoil data for low Reynolds numbers

- flow visualisation of the propeller boundary layer

- propeller-fuselage interactions and impact of fuselage block-age

- CFD simulations of small propel-lers & Wind Turbines

PROPELLER PERFORMANCE TESTING

Supervisor Details: Dries Verstraete Dries.Verstraete@sydney.edu.au, Rm N316, Aero Eng Bldg J11

Current UAVs are limited in alti-tude by their propulsion system. Small gas turbines have the poten-tial to significantly expand altitude capabilities provided they can be designed with an acceptable efficiency. The following projects aim to address some of the issues of micro gas turbines

Coleman engine The so-called Coleman engine, a semi-closed recuperated engine, is considered to be one of the major alternative cycles for high altitude

long endurance UAVs. This project consists of an analysis of a range of different gas turbine configu-rations at altitude with the aim to quantify the impact of low Reynolds number operation on the different cycles.

Micro Turbine Simulation Due to the low Reynolds numbers and the various alternative engine cycles, a dedicated simulation tool for UAV propulsion is required. In this thesis a micro turbine simulation tool will be developed in Mode-

lica, the leading object-oriented simulation language. The project will consist of the development component models and their integration.

MICRO GAS TURBINES

HYPERSONIC AIRCRAFT AND SPACEPLANESGeneral Background The tec hn ical and commerc ial feasibility of both hypersonic aircraft and reusable space-planes is studied world-wide. The high temperatures associated with either hypersonic flight or atmospheric reentry result in severe thermal stress for the aircraft structure. Innovative structural designs are therefore required.

Specific projects A multitude of projects are available

in this domain. Possible projects include but are not limited to:

• impact of low speed handling qualities on waverider design and optimisation

• design of a hydrogen fuelled supersonic transport aircraft

• analysis of pre-cooled and variable cycle engines across a range of flight conditions

•development of a conceptual design tool

•missile shape optimisation

Up to 3 honours thesis

Multi-level design and optimisation

Fuel cells offer the potential to significantly increase endurance of small electric UAVs. However, their integration requires considerable research. The following topics are available in this general area

Fuel cell controller develop-ment and transient perfor-mance

Fuel cell performance during transients is significantly impacted

by the controller design. This thesis will consist of the design of a fuel

cell controller and an assessment of i t s impact on the t rans ient performance of the fuel cell.

Battery life prognostic model development Battery life and endurance esti-mates are critical for the perfor-mance prediction of electric vehi-cles. In this thesis a NASA deve-loped battery health management model will be extended and applied to a range of mission profiles. The predicted perfor-mance will be compared with measured performance to assess the validity of the model

Electric motor dyno testing Electric motor models are scarce and improved models are needed to correctly predict performance of electric UAVs. In this thesis an improved model will be derived for electric motors based on extensive dyne testing.

Electronic speed controller efficiency measurements

Electronic speed controllers are needed to drive brushless DC motors. However, efficiency data for these electronic devices is not widely available. In the current thesis electronic speed controller efficiency will be measured and a model will be developed that allows accurate prediction of speed controller efficiency. !

FUEL-CELL-BASED UAV PROPULSION

Supervisor Details: Dries Verstraete Dries.Verstraete@sydney.edu.au, Rm N316, Aero Eng Bldg J11

Modelica is the leading object-oriented model l ing tool for dynamic systems and is used in a range of industries and research institutes. Whereas various open-source models are available in Modelica validation and impro-vement of those models is needed. In this s e r i e s o f t h e s i s modelica models will be developed for a range of applications: !

- drivetrain analysis - aircraft flight mechanics - fuel cel l and battery

dynamic models - gas turbine systems - …

DYNAMIC SYSTEM MODELLING IN MODELICA

Dr Gareth A. Vio Rm N306, Bldg J11,

ph: 9351 2394

gareth.vio@sydney.edu.au

2016 THESIS

TOPICS

The Duffing Oscillator

The Duffing oscillator is an example of

forced one-degree of freedom system that

exhibits chaotic response.

The project aims to study the various

behaviours and to build an equivalent

experiment to verify the accuracy of the

computational model

Acoustic Projects

A number of industry based acoustic

projects are available. The student will be

required to interact with industry and self

motivation is a requirement.

DSTO Projects

A number of project suggested by DSTO

are on offer related to blade sailing.

Fluid-Structure Interaction Mapping

FE Models and CFD surface maps are non-

coincident.This project will look at

techniques to create a splining routing to

transfer motion and displacement between

and FE package and a CFD mesh.

Non-Linear Dynamics

Non-linearities effect our everyday lives and

have interesting beavhoiur. This topic aims

to research this behaviour in aeroelastic

systems via inclusion of structural (stiffness

and damping) nonlinearities, aerodynamic

non-linearities and effect of heat.

Model Updating

Finite element model are just a

representation of the real world. These

model need to be tuned to the real

experimental results. This topic aim to

explore how to modify FE models to

acquire the characteristics of an

experiment.

For Internal Use Only – Not for external distribution

Dr KC Wong School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering Email: kc.wong@sydney.edu.au 2016 Honours/MPE Thesis (ver 1.0 – 18 Sep 2015) Please come and discuss possible topics with me as soon as possible. Subject areas supervised include Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), Aircraft Design, Experimental Aerodynamics, Projects to enhance Experiential Learning, and Aeronautical Engineering Education. A particular focus will be on the development of Extreme UAVs, ie. Flight platforms with particularly extreme flight capabilities. Any topics within the following or related areas can be discussed and potentially agreed to. Possible Topic Areas include: (1) (Multiple projects possible) mini UAV Airframe Systems:

a. Tail Sitter VTOL concepts i. Distributed Thrust; ii. Thrust-vectoring; iii. Perching; iv. Micro-“Prop-hanging” fixed wing; v. High Manoeuvrability for flight in cluttered environment.

b. Aerodynamic Modelling, Stability and Control, Design Optimisation, Flight Simulation and Testing of airframe concepts;

c. Development and testing of tube-launched UAV concepts; d. Deployable and morphing structures for airframes; e. Development of UAVs deployed from underwater platforms; f. low Reynolds Number aerodynamics and bio-inspired concepts for indoor/outdoor

operation; (2) Design and Development of High Speed mini-UAVs

(3) Continuing development and testing of a modular Multi-Disciplinary

Experimental UAV Test Aircraft.

(4) Multi-Role Multi-Mode (Aerial-Maritime-Terrestrial) UAV – need to see me to

discuss details..

(5) Tethered Hovering UAV on floating platforms (multiple projects – need to see me to discuss details).

(6) (Multiple projects possible) High Performance BWB (blended wing body) UAV: a. Investigate the shifting in neutral point due to propwash; b. Investigate the use of Split ailerons on BWB aircraft; c. Composite airframe structural optimisation and Rapid Prototyping; d. Dynamic testing of model in the 7 X 5 wind tunnel

e. Improvement of the instrumentation and flight testing i. Alpha-beta-V sensor ii. Control position sensors iii. Interface with X-Plane Flight Simulation iv. Inertia measurement system

For Internal Use Only – Not for external distribution

f. Graphical AVL/Panair editor with expansion to CATIA (part of a fast preliminary aircraft design optimisation tool)

g. Parameter estimation from flight testing i. BWB UAV ii. Cessna 182 (can be compared with full scale) iii. Jabiru J-400 (can be compared with full scale)

(7) Micro EDFs (Electric Ducted Fans) – effect of tailpipe design and thrust-

vectoring mechanisms.

(8) Exploring Rapid Prototyping for new UAV designs, using 3D printing (additive manufacturing) and other facilities.

(9) Launcher for flight testing of small UAVs.

(10) Lighter-than-Air UAV flight systems.

(11) (priority continuing project) The Development of Experiential-Learning Laboratory facilities for

Thin-wall and Aircraft Structures.

(12) (continuing project) Development and review of integrated Experiential-Learning curriculum for Aeronautical Engineering education.

(13) …???...come and see me to discuss your ideas…

2016 Thesis Topics ‐ supervised by P. Gibbens 

 

Vision based UAV navigation in GPS denied environments. 

This project aims to further develop innovative UAV control and navigation systems for 

operation in GPS denied environments like cluttered urban canyons. The 2015 group has 

taken a Parrot quad‐rotor drone and implemented communications and electronics to allow 

the vehicle to be controlled from an external computer via wi‐fi. The computer acquires 

motion information from the on‐board sensors and sends control commands to the vehicle 

to achieve certain control and navigation objectives. The system provides a demonstration 

capability for control strategies and visual navigation methods developed in in‐house 

research investigations. In 2015 this project has produced preliminary working 

demonstrations of feature based visual navigation techniques. 

In 2016 I would like to put 

together a group to advance 

the core elements of this 

project and produce a working 

optimal mission system to 

demonstrate a full mission in 

the Bennett lab navigating the 

AR Parrot drone amongst a 

virtual cityscape discovering 

and modelling the 

environment and avoiding (moving) obstacles and adaptively re‐planning its path as it flies to 

its objective. The core elements that will integrate together, each of which constitutes a 

thesis specialisation, are the following (these are the proposed topics); 

1. Visual feature detection, characterisation and database management 

This will build on current algorithms to generalise the detection of visual features in 

the virtual environment, characterise them for efficient storage in a database and 

conceive ways of associating detected 3D features with the stored characterisation 

for precise navigation in a SLAM/FAN fusion filter. The future focus will be to extend 

current capabilities towards identification of more general environmental shapes for 

navigation. Implement efficient feature database management method (k‐vector 

method). 

 

2. SLAM/FAN navigation data fusion 

Generalise current navigation fusion filter to expand 

SLAM (Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping) and 

include the integration of known features in the 

environment (Feature Aided Navigation). This 

component also relates to the efficient feature 

database management activity.  

3. Flight path optimisation, guidance and control of the UAV 

Expand current methods for optimal flight 

path generation to make the algorithm 

adaptive to the changing environment as new 

obstacles (both fixed environment features 

and moving objects) are discovered. The goal 

is for this algorithm to operate recursively and 

interact with the SLAM/FAN feature map. 

4. Obstacle detection and avoidance 

Extend current work in moving object 

detection (using optical flow) and trajectory 

prediction to contribute threat information to 

the flight path optimisation algorithm. 

5. Quad‐rotor dynamic modelling, gust environment analysis and mitigation 

Extend current modelling of the quad‐rotor 

dynamics and response in typical gusty 

urban environments. This project involves 

collaboration with Dr Ben Thornber with 

regard to modelling of the gust 

environment around the buildings in the 

cityscape to assess the response of the 

vehicle. Ideally we will implement and 

evaluate a Model Predictive Control (MPC) 

control algorithm to minimise the gust 

response and control the vehicle along the 

optimal path determined in 3. 

6. System integration and logical mode analysis and design. 

Current work has commenced the integration of the software components into a 

multi‐threaded software system to manage the operation and interaction of the 

various software tasks. Future development will further refine the structure and 

operation of the software and also develop logical strategies for software 

component implementation and sensor allocation. This is particularly important in 

terms of camera management for the concurrent satisfaction of mission objectives 

and control, navigation and collision avoidance needs.  

 

Skills: Proficiency in Matlab. Programming skills in C/C++. Note, it is not expected that 

students will already have C capability, but should develop these skills early on. These are 

incredibly valuable skills for your future employment and this project will help you develop 

them. 

Level: Thesis only (high WAM). There is room for up to 6 good students on this project 

working together on the system development but specialising in the various system 

elements. 

   

 

VSFS1 Helicopter simulator hardware and simulation modelling 

Current activity is implementing flight control hardware for helicopter control into the static 

simulator in the Bennett Lab. This work involves developing a simulation of helicopter flight 

in Simulink for real‐time implementation and testing, including rotor dynamics. The 

overriding objective is to prepare the system for future operation in support of AERO4206 

Rotary Wing Aircraft (in conjunction with Doug Auld). 

Skills: Matlab proficiency, excellent understanding of flight mechanics. Will require pre‐study 

of AERO4206 material and procedures and preparation of analytical tools. 

Level: Thesis only (good WAM) 

   

 

VSFS Aircraft Simulation and Modelling 

The VSFS simulation environment has undergone numerous developments in recent years 

involving GUI’s, simulation modelling component developments and aircraft models. This 

project aims to integrate these components together into a single definitive simulation 

model for use across our teaching and research programmes. Components requiring 

integration include the universal polynomial aircraft model, the ground model 

(undercarriage/ground interaction for simulation of landings and take‐off), weather and 

turbulence models. Also we have developed numerous aircraft models over the years. These 

need to be integrated together so they can be selected easily from the GUI. This is a good 

project for someone who likes software and simulation. 

Skills: Proficiency in Matlab. Programming skills in C/C++ (possibly).  

Level: Thesis only (good WAM) for software integration. The modelling of some other 

interesting or unusual aircraft could constitute a Project. 

           

                                                            1 VSFS: Variable Stability Flight Simulator