AdAPTS: Adaptive Aerostructures for Power and Transportation Sustainability

Lead Research Organisation: University of Bristol
Department Name: Aerospace Engineering

Abstract

Adaptive Aerostructures for Power and Transportation Sustainability (AdAPTS) is an Early Career Fellowship research project which will advance an ambitious new approach to the design of aerostructures by harnessing the adaptability of compliance-based morphing to continuously optimise aerodynamic performance. This will allow for greener and more sustainable fixed and rotary wing transportation and wind turbine power generation through reduced aerodynamic drag, increased efficiency and improved resilience to changing operating conditions.

Compliance-based adaptive aerostructures are designed to exhibit structural and material flexibility that allows them to change their shape in a smooth and continuous manner. These changes in shape are isolated to certain desired motions in specific areas of an aerodynamic surface, for example the amount of curvature at the rear of an aerofoil, to allow for targeted changes in shape while retaining overall strength. These changes in shape improve the ability of the wing or blade to produce lift, minimise the amount of drag generated, and allow for continuous adaptation to changing operating conditions. Initial work has shown that the family of compliance-based morphing devices developed by the PI can provide significant improvements in performance of 5-25%.

While the potential benefits are promising, much work remains to make compliance-based morphing a viable solution. These types of structures are poorly understood, and the underlying technologies need significant development. The poor understanding of the performance and behaviour of these structures is due to their compliant nature, which means that the structural, aerodynamic, and actuation characteristics are all highly coupled - with the aerodynamic loading affecting the actuated shape, which in turn affects the aerodynamics. This coupling requires simulation of all of the physics involved in a cohesive, coupled manner. Furthermore, the structural, material, and actuation technologies used to achieve these smooth and continuous deformed shapes are novel, and therefore significant effort is needed to mature them to the point where they can be used in real-world applications. Finally, industry partners in the fixed wing, rotary wing, and wind turbine fields see the potential in these technologies, but because they are so novel and different from current approaches, work needs to be done to show the specific, quantitative improvements in performance that these technologies can achieve for their applications.

To address the three sides of this problem, AdAPTS will undertake an ambitious research programme with three parallel streams of work that will: 1.) create a fully comprehensive analysis framework to better understand the hierarchical, coupled performance of compliance-based morphing structures from the bottom up, 2.) rapidly mature the proposed morphing technologies, and 3.) work directly with industry to analyse and design adaptive structures for their products, and to predict the achievable improvements in performance.

Planned Impact

AdAPTS is designed to help address the pressing societal need to develop more environmentally sustainable and resilient transportation and power generation technologies. The long-term focus of this research is therefore on creating positive impact for society through the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and environmental impact. Achieving this goal requires strengthening our fundamental, physical understanding of compliance-based morphing systems, maturing the technologies involved, and making the case to industry to advance widescale adoption of the approach into fixed wing aircraft, helicopter, and wind turbines. This development strategy will create cascading positive impacts on the people involved.

The development of a better understanding of the coupled physics of compliance-based adaptive aerostructures will advance our knowledge of this and other complex systems, which will increase our ability to make them more efficient, creating impact within the scientific community. The maturation of relevant technologies will benefit UK industry and support the growth of related fields. The PI will work very closely with industry over the course of this project to design application specific compliance-based morphing systems, which will help show the potential benefits to industry to encourage adoption. If the technologies prove successful, then they would provide UK industry with a competitive edge in the increasingly global aerospace/wind energy markets. The creation of new knowledge and technologies is also likely to lead to spin-out companies and the creation of new markets.

AdAPTS will also have strong positive impact on the researchers directly involved. It will allow the PI, postdoctoral researchers, summer interns, undergraduate project students, and PhD students involved to develop new skills in cutting edge methods within aerospace structures engineering. It will also create a strong and cohesive research group which will feed into the pipeline of aerospace trained people available to UK industry. The wide-reaching public engagement activities that will be undertaken will further help expand this pipeline by getting young people excited about sustainable engineering and careers in STEM fields.

Publications

10 25 50
 
Description UKRI Tomorrow's Engineering Research Challenges Workshop
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Membership of a guideline committee
 
Description University of Bristol Net Zero Steering Group
Geographic Reach Local/Municipal/Regional 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a guidance/advisory committee
 
Description FlyZero FZ_SoW-047 Morphing Aircraft and MDO
Amount £32,183 (GBP)
Funding ID FZ_PM_0177 
Organisation Aerospace Technology Institute 
Sector Charity/Non Profit
Country United Kingdom
Start 07/2021 
End 12/2021
 
Description X-Wing Alpha
Amount £10,974,294 (GBP)
Funding ID 103047 
Organisation Innovate UK 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 03/2021 
End 03/2023
 
Description University of Canterbury collaboration 
Organisation University of Canterbury NZ
Country New Zealand 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution I have started a collaboration with Dr. Stephen Daynes from the University of Canterbury to explore the optimal design of compliant morphing fairings for civil aviation. I have had one of my PhD students (Nuhaadh Mahid) who is working on this topic spend 10 weeks visiting the University of Canterbury, and I also went down for a 2 week research visit. We adapted a method for spatial optimisation of structures developed by Dr. Daynes to our compliance based morphing skin panels.
Collaborator Contribution Dr. Daynes worked closely with Nuhaadh and myself during the research visit, spending considerable time supporting Nuhaadh as he implemented the optimisation method. During this time, we also co-developed a new concept for combining Dr. Daynes's optimally printed lattice structures with the wound compoaite truss bones I am developing for the bird inspired wing demonstrator I am designing for AdAPTS. We are currently exploring ways to carry out research on this new concept.
Impact We have a joint journal paper being written, which is nearing submission.
Start Year 2023
 
Description Glastonbury Music Festival 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact I ran a Green Aviation booth at Glastonbury in the Science Futures area. The booth displayed research from my Fellowship and from other researchers in the Bristol Aerospace Dept and Bristol Composites Institute using fun, hands on, interactive demos. We had a group of 5 Bristol Aero people (2 academics, 3 PhDs) running the stand. We talked to hundreds and hundreds of festival goers, with a very winde range of ages and backgrounds, from people who work in the Aerospace industry all the way to people who haven't flown for over a decade because of the environmental impact. We had very open and honest conversations about just how much further there is to go before aviation is truly sustainable. By being honest, we were able to disarm those who might have been against us, such that they would then appreciate the efforts we were making in our research. It also helped that we had lots of fun toys to play with! We had a lot of engagement with our "wishing tree", where people could tell us about what they want the future of sustainable aviation to look like. Overall, the response was incredibly positive, and we were consistently delighted by the depth of conversations that were had (20+ minutes was not unusual, and some were even over 1.5 hours!) and by the passion that people have about this issue.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
URL https://www.bristol.ac.uk/engineering/news/2022/bci-at-glastonbury.html
 
Description University of Bristol Advertising Campaign at Bristol Airport 
Form Of Engagement Activity A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press)
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact I was part of a University of Bristol advertising campaign, which highlighted my work on sustinable aviation. In particular, a poster showing a large picture of myself holding an artistic model of a sustainable aircraft (which I originally made for the 2019 Green Man Festival), along with text I wrote about my vision for a sustainable future for Aviation. Digital and paper versions of the poster have been on display throughout Bristol Airport since summer 2022, in both the arrivals and departures areas, where it has been seen by many thousands of people. It has also been seen by many of the students and staff of Bristol University, some of whom have discussed it with me wanting to know more. An extended version of this advert is also available online as part of a UoB Community page (url below)
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
URL https://www.bristol.ac.uk/city/community/