aircraft – Politecnico di Milano – Progress in Research

IPROP: ion propulsion in atmosphere

Posted on 28/11/202316/01/2024 by admin

The European project IPROP – Ionic PROPulsion in Atmoshpere had its kick-off meeting on 21-22 November. The project is co-ordinated by Prof Marco Belan of the Department of Aerospace Science and Technology (DAER) at Politecnico di Milano and funded through the ‘EIC Pathfinder Open’ call, promoted by the European Innovation Council to support innovative ideas that can pave the way for new technologies.

So far, ion propulsion has only found application in space, and now IPROP aims to explore its development potential for application in the atmosphere, going beyond the current pioneering phase to understand whether this technology can achieve widespread use in the future.

The programme will engage the partners in an extensive fundamental research phase that will cover the very theory of ionisation phenomena, the study of electrode geometries used in ion propulsion and even explore the integration of innovative thrusters on flying prototypes.

As part of the project, an actual ion-powered prototype aircraft will be realised. It will be an airship and will serve as a technology demonstrator: a first step towards larger-scale applications at higher altitudes. Great expectations are focused is precisely on the possible uses of this technology in the stratosphere, as it combines long, maintenance-free operating times and very low environmental impact.

The IPROP consortium, led by Politecnico di Milano, also includes Università di Bologna, Karlsruher Institut für Technologie, Technische Universität Dresden, Von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics, Institut Supérieur de l’Aéronautique et de l’Espace (ISAE-SUPAERO), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and the Aeronord company.
The team involved for Politecnico currently includes Filippo Maggi, Carlo Riboldi, Stefano Cacciola, Raffaello Terenzi, Stefano Trovato, Davide Usuelli, Domenico Montenero and Marco Belan for the Department of Aerospace Science and Technology; Paolo Barbante, Lorenzo Valdettaro and Carlo de Falco for the Department of Mathematics.

HERMES: optimising design and performance of hypersonic vehicles

Posted on 03/11/202316/01/2024 by admin

Hypersonic flight is currently a topic of great interest for both academic research and the modern space industry. Examples of hypersonic vehicles – i.e., travelling at speeds much faster than the speed of sound – include the capsules for the re-entry of astronauts into the Earth’s atmosphere, reusable launchers, experimental aircraft for high-altitude flight or capsules launched on sub-orbital trajectories for space tourism.

The HERMES project (Hypersonic Vehicles Enhancement via Robust Multi-fidelity Optimisation for the Exploitation of Space), which recently got underway under the coordination of Giulio Gori and Francesco Bonelli from the Department of Aerospace Science and Technology at Politecnico di Milano, aims to optimise the design processes of this type of vehicle.

To optimise the design and performance of hypersonic vehicles, it is important to develop reliable mathematical models capable of providing accurate predictions of the complex physical phenomena that characterise hypersonic flight. This optimisation process is also inevitably hampered by the many sources of uncertainty due to limitations in scientific knowledge in this area. Consequently, a robust approach to the design of new hypersonic aircraft is required; however, this approach currently entails unacceptable computational costs.

Through the exploitation of mathematical models of varying fidelity, the HERMES project aims to develop new, low computational cost methodologies for the robust optimisation of hypersonic aircraft. The integration of information of different quantity and quality makes it possible to complement the available database and develop more efficient methodologies. The ultimate goal is to innovate the design of hypersonic aircraft, improving their performance and flight efficiency and ultimately reducing the cost of vehicle launching and accessing space.

The HERMES project is funded under PRIN 22 programme for Research Projects of National Interest (Project No. 2022YPMRNW).

NABUCCO: revolutionary wings for sustainable aviation

Posted on 02/11/202316/01/2024 by admin

Aircraft capable of changing their shape during different flight conditions, addressing two of the most important challenges for the future of sustainable aviation: weight reduction and increased efficiency. These are the challenges of the NABUCCO research project by Professor Chiara Bisagni of the Department of Aerospace Science and Technology at Politecnico di Milano.

NABUCCO develops radically new concepts of adaptive composite structures, ie those capable of changing their shape, by exploiting the phenomenon of structural instability, to be applied to next-generation aircraft. In aeronautics, structural buckling is generally avoided as it can instantly generate large deformations and even cause a catastrophic collapse.

Conversely, NABUCCO no longer sees structural instability as a phenomenon to be avoided, but as a design opportunity to be explored for its revolutionary potential. The idea is to use the disadvantages of instability in a positive way to conceive, design and build composite structures – and in particular adaptive wings. Professor Chiara Bisagni will develop new design, analysis and optimisation methods based on analytical formulations, neural network algorithms and an integrated, multidisciplinary design approach.

Professor Bisagni was awarded the prestigious ERC Advanced Grant from the European Research Council for her NABUCCO project. These European funds enable internationally established researchers to conduct innovative, high-risk research projects by obtaining funding of up to 2.5 million euros for a duration of five years.

The Grant allowed Chiara Bisagni to return to Italy after more than 10 years abroad: first at the University of California San Diego in the United States and then at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. Bisagni is also a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), an Executive Council Member of the International Committee on Composite Materials (ICCM) and a Knight of the Order of the Star of Italy.

Innovative wings for the NGCTR-TD civil tiltrotor

Posted on 24/07/202308/09/2023 by admin

The activities of the FORMOSA (FunctiOnal aiRcraft MOveable SurfAces) project, launched in 2020 to redesign the wing control surfaces of the NextGen Civil TiltRotor (NGCTR-TD) civil tiltrotor produced by Leonardo, have recently come to an end.

A tiltrotor is a hybrid aircraft that combines the characteristics of a helicopter with those of an airplane. The architecture of tiltrotors features two rotors, placed at the wingtips, which can rotate allowing the aircraft to take off (and land) vertically and, once the take-off manoeuvre is complete, rotate forward to turn into propellers, producing the thrust for flight, as in a classic propeller plane.

The project, co-ordinated by Prof. Vincenzo Muscarello (Department of Aerospace Science and Technology) and funded by the European Clean Sky 2 programme, has made it possible to reduce the load of wakes on the wings in helicopter mode (-9% compared to the original project), enabling a reduction in fuel consumption during vertical take-off and landing manoeuvres. In addition, a significant improvement in roll performance was achieved during flight in airplane mode, thanks to a 25 per cent reduction in the time-to-bank, the time needed to reach the required turning angle.

The NextGen Civil TiltRotor is a technology demonstrator designed by Leonardo as part of the European Clean Sky 2 programme and created to meet, among other things, the growing need for air mobility in densely populated urban areas, offering the opportunity to take off and land vertically like a helicopter, together with the high speed distance capability typical of airplanes.

The FORMOSA (FunctiOnal aiRcraft MOveable SurfAces) consortium consists of a group of young researchers from Politecnico di Milano and a team of engineers from the Portuguese company CEiiA (Centre of Engineering and Product Development).

TRACES: higher education in the field of aviation safety

Posted on 07/02/202309/03/2023 by admin

In the European Aviation Safety Agency’s (EASA) 2019 annual report, in-flight icing was identified as a major problem for large aircraft.

Aircraft manufacturers must therefore demonstrate safe operation in freezing conditions before any new product is commissioned. This involves significant costs as the inherent complexity of freezing processes means that certification authorities place little trust in simulations and therefore require wind tunnel tests and flight tests to be carried out in freezing conditions.

TRACES (TRAining the next generation iCE researcherS) is a European joint doctoral network whose main objective is to train a group of experienced researchers in the field of in-flight icing, capable of mastering the different disciplines required to analyse the complexity of phenomena related to airframe icing and its mitigation in aircraft and aircraft engines.

Within TRACES, researchers will take part in various kinds of training activities: practical research activities, periods of work with non-academic partners and participation in scientific and additional soft skills courses and workshops.

The coordinator of TRACES is Alberto Guardone, professor at the Department of Aerospace Science and Technology of the Politecnico di Milano; 13 other universities and companies in the sector are members of the consortium.

The TRACES project website

PROJECT BENEFICIARIES

Politecnico di Milano
Technische Universitat Braunschweig – TUBS
Technische Universitat Darmstadt – TUDA
Office National d’Etudes et de Researches Aérospatiales – ONERA
École Polytechnique – ECPOL

INDUSTRY PARTNERS

Airbus Defence and Space Gmbh
Airbus Helicopters S.A.S.
Airbus Operation S.A.S.
Dassault Aviation
Eurac Research
General Electric Deutschland Holding Gmbh
Leonardo
Safran Aircraft Engines
Safran Aerotechnic

ADVISORY BOARD

EASA – European Aviation Safety Agency
FAA – Federal Aviation Administration
NASA – National Aeronautics and Space Administration
NRC – National Research Council
DLR – German Aerospace Center

Hybris: structural batteries for electric aircraft

Posted on 04/03/202214/03/2022 by admin

Hybris is developed by a research group consisting of professors and students of the Department of Aerospace Science and Technology of the Politecnico di Milano.

It is the design of a hybrid-electric aircraft with structural batteries.

Structural batteries are innovative multifunctional composite materials that can withstand mechanical loads while simultaneously storing electrical energy. Both the fuselage and the outside of the wings of the HYBRIS are made of structural batteries.

The inventors are Andrea Bernasconi, Fabio Biondani, Luca Capoferri, Alberto Favier, Federico Gualdoni, Carlo Riboldi, Lorenzo Trainelli, Carmen Velarde Lopez de Ayala

Hybris won the Intellectual Property Award (IPA) in the “aerospace” sector, as announced at the Italian Pavilion of Expo Dubai. It is the competition for Italian technological patents resulting from public research organised by the Ministry of Economic Development in collaboration with Netval (Network for Research Valorisation).

A total of 217 innovative patents developed by Universities, Research Centres and Scientific Hospitalisation and Treatment Institutions were considered for the competition; and 35 of these were selected for the final stage in Dubai.

At the end of the process, the award-winning projects were those able to propose innovations with the greatest economic and social impact in 7 technological areas of reference for the global ecological and digital transition: agritech and agrifood, cybersecurity, green tech, life science, future mobility, aerospace, and alternative energy.