Thesis (M. Eng.)--Carleton University, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 177-183). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (M.S.) -- Mississippi State University. Department of Aerospace Engineering. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

In this thesis, a PROCESSOR and a POSTPROCESSOR are developed for a plane frame analysis computer program on the IBM PC. The PROCESSOR reads the data prepared by a PREPROCESSOR and solves for the unknown joint displacement using the matrix displacement method. The POSTPROCESSOR uses the results of the PROCESSOR to obtain the required responses of the structure. A chapter on testing procedures is also provided. / Master of Science

Wave propagation is a common phenomenon in aircraft structures resulting from high velocity transient loadings like bird hit, gust etc. Apart from understanding the behavior of structures under such loading, wave propagation analysis is also important to gain knowledge about their high frequency characteristics, which have several applications. The applications include structural health monitoring using diagnostic waves and control of wave transmission for reduction of noise and vibration. Transient loadings with high frequency content are associated with wave propagation. As a result, the higher modes of the structure participate in the response. Finite element (FE) modeling for such problem requires very fine mesh to capture these higher modes. This leads to large system size and hence large computational cost. Wave propagation problems are usually solved in frequency domain using fast Fourier transform (FFT) and spectral finite element method is one such technique which follows FE procedure in the transformed frequency domain. In this thesis, a novel wavelet based spectral finite element (WSFE) is developed for wave propagation analysis in finite dimension structures. In WSFE for 1-D waveguides, the partial differential wave equations are reduced to a set of ODEs using orthogonal compactly supported Daubechies scaling functions for temporal approximation. The localized nature of the Daubechies basis functions allows finite domain analysis and imposition of the boundary conditions. The reduced ODEs are usually solved exactly, the solution of which gives the dynamic shape functions. The interpolating functions used here are exact solution of the governing differential equation and hence, the exact elemental dynamic stiffness matrix is derived. Thus, In the absence of any discontinuities, one element is sufficient to model 1-D waveguide of any length. This elemental stiffness matrix can be assembled to obtain the global matrix as in FE and after solution, the time domain responses are obtained using the inverse wavelet transform. The developed technique circumvents several serious limitations of the conventional FFT based Spectral Finite Element (FSFE). In FSFE, the wave equations are reduced to ODEs using FFT for time approximation. The remaining part of the formulation is quite similar to that of WSFE. The required assumption of periodicity in FSFE, however, does not allow modeling of finite length structures. It results in “wrap around” problem, which distorts the response simulated using FSFE and a semi-infinite (“throw-off”) element is required for imparting artificial damping. This artificial damping occurs as the “throw off” element allows leakage of energy. In some cases, a very high damping can also be considered instead of “throw off” element to remove wrap around effects. In either cases, the damping introduced is much larger than any inherent damping that may be present in the structure. It should also be mentioned that even in presence of the artificial damping, a larger time window is required for removing the distortions completely. The developed WSFE method is completely free from such problems and can efficiently handle undamped finite length structures irrespective of the time window considered. Apart from this, FSFE allows imposition of only zero initial condition and in contrary any initial conditions can be used in WSFE. Though FSFE has problem in modeling finite length undamped structures for time domain analysis, it is well suited for performing frequency domain study of wave characteristics, namely, the determination of spectrum and dispersion relations. WSFE is also capable of extracting these frequency dependent wave properties, however only up to a certain fraction of the Nyquist frequency. This constraint results from the loss in frequency resolution due to the increase in time resolution in wavelet analysis, where the basis functions are bounded both in time and frequency. A price has to be paid in frequency domain in order to obtain a bound in the time domain. The consequence of this analysis is to impose a constraint on the time sampling rate for the simulation with WSFE, to avoid spurious dispersion. WSFE for 2-D waveguides are formulated using Daubechies scaling functions for both temporal and spatial approximations. The initial and boundary conditions, however, are imposed using two different methods, which are wavelet extrapolation technique and periodic extension or restraint matrix respectively. The 2-D WSFE is bounded in both the spatial directions unlike 2-D FSFE, which is essentially unbounded in one spatial direction. Apart from this, 2-D WSFE is also free from “wrap around” problem similar to 1-D WSFE due to the localized nature of the basis functions used for temporal approximation. In this thesis, WSFE is developed for isotropic 1-D and 2-D waveguides for time and frequency domain analysis. These include elementary rod, Euler-Bernoulli and Timoshenko beams in 1-D modeling, and plates and axisymmetric cylinders in 2-D modeling. The wave propagation responses simulated using WSFE for these waveguides are validated using FE results. The advantages of the proposed technique over the corresponding FSFE method are also highlighted all through the numerical examples. Next part of the thesis involves the extension of the developed WSFE technique for modeling composite and nano-composite structures to study their wave propagation behavior. Due to their anisotropic nature, analysis of composite structures, particularly high frequency transient analysis is much more complicated compared to the corresponding metallic structures. This is due to the presence of stiffness coupling in these structures. Superior mechanical properties of composites, however, are making them integral parts of an aircraft and thus they often experience such short duration, high velocity impact Loadings. Very few literatures report the response of composite structures subjected to such high frequency excitations. Here, WSFE is formulated for a higher order composite beam with axial, flexural, shear and contractional degrees of freedom. WSFE is also formulated for composite plates using classical laminated plate theory with axial and flexural degrees of freedom. Simulations performed using these WSFE models are used to study the higher order and elastic coupling effects on the wave propagation responses. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and their composites are attracting a great deal of experimental and theoretical research world-wide. The recent trend in the literature shows a great interest in the dynamic and wave characteristics of CNTs and nano-composites because of their several applications. In most of these applications, CNTs are used in the embedded form as it does not requires precise alignment of the nano-tubes. In addition, the extraordinary mechanical properties of CNTs are being exploited to achieve high strength nano-composite. Apart from the experimental studies and atomistic simulation to study the mechanical properties of CNTs and nano-composites, continuum modeling is also receiving much attention, mainly due to its computational viability. In this thesis, a 1-D WSFE is formulated for multi-wall carbon nanotube (MWNT) embedded composite modeled as beam using higher order layer-wise theory. This theory allows to model partial interfacial shear stress transfer, which normally occurs due to improper dispersion of CNTs in nano-composites. The effects of different matrix materials and fraction of shear stress transfer on the wave characteristics are studied. The responses obtained using other beam theories are also compared. The beam modeling does not allow capturing the radial motions of the CNT, which are important for several applications. These can be effectively captured by modeling the CNT using a 2-D axisymmetric model. Hence, a 2-D WSFE model is constructed to capture the high frequency characteristics of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs). The response of SWNT simulated using the developed model is validated with experimental and atomistic simulation results reported in the literature. The comparison are done for dispersion relation and also radial breathing mode frequencies. The effects of geometrical parameters, namely the radius and the wall thickness of the SWNT on the higher radial, longitudinal and coupled radial-longitudinal vibrational modes are analyzed. These behaviors are studied in both time and frequency domains. Such time domain analyses of finite length SWNT are not possible with the Fourier transform based techniques reported in literature, although, such analyses are important particularly for sensor applications of SWNT. Spectral finite element method is very much suited for solution of inverse problems like force reconstruction from the measured wave response. This is because the technique is based on the concept of transfer function between the displacements (output) and applied forces (input). In the present work, WSFE is implemented for identification of impact force from the wave propagation responses simulated with FE and used as surrogate experimental results. The results show that WSFE can accurately reconstruct the impulse load applied to 1-D waveguides which include rod, Euler-Bernoulli beam and connected 2-D frame, even with highly truncated response. This is unlike FSFE, where the accuracy of the identified force depends largely on the time window of the measured responses. The detection of damage from the wave propagation analysis is another class of inverse problems considered in this thesis and is of utmost importance in the area of aircraft structural health monitoring. Here, the detection scheme is based on arrival time of the waves reflected from the damage. A novel detection technique based on wavelet filtering is proposed here and it is shown to work efficiently even in the presence of noise in the measured wave responses. Detection of damage requires an efficient damage model to simulate the mode of structural failure. In this regard, two spectrally formulated wavelet elements are proposed, one to model isotropic beam with through-width notch and the second to model composite beam with embedded de-lamination. In the first case, the response of the damaged beam is considered as the perturbation of the undamaged response and the linear perturbation analysis leads to a completely new set of dynamic stiffness matrix. In the second case, the delamination is modeled by subdividing the de-laminated region into separate waveguides and full damage model is established by imposing the kinematics. These models help to simulate wave propagation in such damaged beams to study the effect of damage on the wave response. Noise and vibration are often transmitted from the source to the other parts of the structure in the form of wave propagation. Thus, control of such wave transmission is essential for reduction of noise and vibration, which are the main cause of discomfort and in many cases cause failure of structure. Here, techniques for both passive and active controls of wave are proposed. For active control, a closed loop system is modeled using WSFE with magnetostrictive actuator for control of axial and flexural wave propagations in connected isotropic 1-D waveguides. The feedback is negative velocity and/or acceleration measured at different sensor points. A very new application of CNT reinforced composite for passive control of vibration and wave response is explored in this thesis. For this, a novel concept of nano-composite inserts is proposed. This insert can be made from CNTs dispersed in polymer. The high stiffness of the inserts helps to regulate the power flow in the form of wave propagation from the point of application of the loads to other parts of the structures. The length of the insert, volume fraction of CNTs and position are changed to achieve the required reduction in wave amplitudes. The entire thesis is split up into eight chapters. Chapter 1 presents a brief introduction, the motivation and objective of the thesis. Chapters 2 and 3 give a detail account of wavelet spectral finite element formulation for 1-D and 2-D isotropic waveguides, while Chapter 4 gives the same for composite waveguides. Chapter 5 brings out essential wave characteristics in carbon nanotubes and nano-composite structures, while Chapters 6 and 7 exclusively deal with application of WSFE to some real world problems. The thesis ends with summary and directions of future research. In summary, the thesis has brought out several new aspects of wave propagation in isotropic, composite and nano-composite structures. In addition to establishing wavelet spectral finite element as a useful tool for wave propagation analysis, several new techniques are presented, several new algorithm are proposed and several new concepts are explored.

Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAVs) are battery operated, remote controlled miniature flying vehicles. MAVs are required in military missions, traffic management, hostage situation surveillance, sensing, spying, scientific, rescue, police and mapping applications. The essential characteristics required for MAVs are: light weight, maneuverability, ease of launch in variety of conditions, ability to operate in very hostile environments, stealth capabilities and small size. There are three main classes of MAVs : fixed, rotary and flapping wing MAV’s. There are some MAVs which are combinations of these main classes. Each class has its own advantage and disadvantage. Different scenarios may call for different types of MAV. Amongst the various classes, flapping wing class of MAVs offer the required potential for miniaturisation and maneuverability, necessitating the need to understand flapping wing flight. In the case of flapping winged flight, the thrust required for the vehicle flight is obtained due to the flapping of the wing. Hence for efficient flapping flight, optimising the flap motion is necessary. In this thesis work, an algorithm for motion optimisation of plunging airfoils is developed in a parallel framework. An evolutionary optimisation algorithm, PSO (Particle Swarm Optimisation), is coupled with an unsteady flow solver to develop a generic motion optimisation tool for plunging airfoils. All the unsteady flow computations in this work are done with the HIFUN1 code, developed in–house in the Computational Aerodynamics Laboratory, IISc. This code is a cell centered finite volume compressible flow solver. The motion optimisation algorithm involves starting with a population of motion curves from which an optimal curve is evolved. Parametric representation of curves using NURBS is used for efficient handling of the motion paths. In the present case, the motion paths of a plunging NACA 0012 airfoil is optimised to give maximum flight efficiency for both inviscid and laminar cases. Also, the present analysis considers all practically achievable plunge paths, si- nusoidal and non–sinusoidal, with varying plunge amplitudes and slopes. The results show promise, and indicate that the algorithm can be extended to more realistic three dimension motion optimisation studies.

The development of structural monitoring systems is a critical research area because of the age and sustainment costs associated with many aircraft in use today. Specifically, integrated structural health monitoring (SHM) systems are advantageous because they allow for automated, near real-time assessment of the state of the structure, where the automation improves both the accuracy of the measurements and allows for more frequent system interrogation than possible with traditional nondestructive evaluation methods. Ultrasonic techniques are particularly well-suited for SHM systems because of their potential to detect and track damage well before structural failure using in situ sensors. The research problem considered in this thesis is detection and tracking of fatigue cracks emanating from fastener holes in metallic structural components. The sensing method utilizes attached ultrasonic transducers, and tracking of damage is achieved by employing a state estimation framework that incorporates a well-known empirical model for crack growth and a measurement model relating the ultrasonic response to crack size. The state estimation process is preceded by an automated crack detection algorithm, and can be followed by a prediction of remaining life assuming future usage. The state estimation framework provides a better estimate of crack size than either the ultrasonic measurement model or crack growth model alone. Although the example application is monitoring of fastener holes, the general approach is applicable to a variety of SHM problems.

Developments in electric technologies have the potential to increase the efficiency and performance of commercial aircraft. However, without proper architecture innovation, technology developments at the subsystem level are not sufficient to ensure successful integration. Adaptations to existing architectures work well when trades are made strictly between equivalent systems which fulfill and induce the same functional requirements. However, this approach does not provide the architect with adequate flexibility to integrate technologies with differing functional and physical interfaces. Architecture redefinition is required for proper implementation of non-traditional and innovative architectural elements. A function-based process for innovative architecture design was developed to provide flexibility in the definition of candidate architectural concepts. Tools and methods were developed which facilitate the definition and exploration of a function-based architectural design space. These include functional decomposition, functional induction, dynamic morphology, adaptive functional mapping, reconfigurable mission definition, and concept level system installation. The Architecture Design Environment (ADEN) was built to integrate these tools and to facilitate the definition of physics-based models in evaluating the performance of candidate architectures. Using functions as the foundation of this process assists in mitigating assumptions which traditionally govern architecture structures and offers a promising approach to architecting through flexible conceptualization and integration. This toolset provides the framework wherein knowledge from conceptual, preliminary, and detailed design efforts can be linked in the definition of revolutionary architectures.

In dieser Projektarbeit geht es um die Abschätzung von Massen der Hauptbaugruppen großer ziviler Verkehrsflugzeuge (MTOM > 40 t), sowie um die Abschätzung der Betriebsleermasse. Die Projektarbeit analysiert die 2013 im Luftfahrttechnischen Handbuch (LTH) erschienene Massenschätzmethode MA 401 12-01 B von F. Dorbarth und vergleicht diese Methode mit anderen früher veröffentlichten Methoden, die von Fernandes da Moura bereits 2001 analysiert wurden. Für die Analyse werden ausgewählte Flugzeugmuster (A320-200, A330-200, A340-300 und B737-200) und deren tatsächliche Massen der Hauptbaugruppen sowie Betriebsleermassen genutzt. Die Abweichungen zwischen den berechneten und den tatsächlichen Massen werden für jede Methode in Diagrammen veranschaulicht. Es zeigt sich dabei, dass die Massenschätzmethode aus dem Luftfahrttechnischen Handbuch nur geringe Abweichungen im Vergleich zu den tatsächlichen Massen aufweist. Damit werden die eigenen Angaben zur Genauigkeit der LTH-Methode bestätigt. Die Abweichungen sind geringer als bei älteren und generelleren Methoden wie sie von Fernandes da Moura untersucht wurden. Dies entspricht der Erwartung, dass eine neuere Methode, die auf Flugzeuge einer bestimmten Art beschränkt ist, auch genauere Ergebnisse liefert. Insgesamt hat sich die LTH-Methode als übersichtliche und hinreichend genaue Methode zur Massenabschätzung im frühen Flugzeugentwurf erwiesen. Die Abweichungen lagen in der Regel unter 5 % und nur in Ausnahmefällen wurde eine Abweichung von 10 % überschritten.

Composite structures are extremely useful for aerospace, automotive, marine and civil applications due to their very high specific structural properties. These structures are subjected to severe dynamic loading in their service life. Repeated exposure to these severe loading conditions can induce structural damage which ultimately may precipitate a catastrophic failure. Therefore, an interest in the continuous inspection and maintenance of engineering structures has grown tremendously in recent years. Sensitive aerospace applications can have small design margins and any inadequacy in knowledge of the system may cause design failure. Structures made from composite materials posses complicated failure mechanism as compared to those made from conventional metallic materials. In composite structural design, it is hence very important to properly model geometric intricacies and various imperfections such as delaminations and cracks. Two important issues are addressed in this thesis: (1) structural modeling of nonlinear delamination and uncertainty propagation in nonlinear characteristics of composite plate structures and (2) development of a model based damage detection system to handle uncertainty issues. An earlier proposed shear deformable C0 composite plate finite element is modified to alleviate modeling uncertainty issues associated with a damage detection problem. Parabolic variation of transverse shear stresses across the plate thickness is incorporated into the modified formulation using mixed shear interpolation technique. Validity of the proposed modification is established through available literature. Correction of the transverse shear stress term in the formulation results in about 2 percent higher solution accuracy than the earlier model. It is found that the transverse shear effect increases with higher modes of the plate deformation. Transverse shear effects are more prominent in sandwich plates. This refined composite plate finite element is used for large deformation dynamic analysis of delaminated composite plates. The inter-laminar contact at the delaminated region in composite plates is modeled with the augmented Lagrangian approach. Numerical simulations are carried out to investigate the effect of delamination on the nonlinear transient behavior of composite plates. Results obtained from these studies show that widely used unconditionally stable β-Newmark method presents numerical instability problems in the transient simulation of delaminated composite plate structures with large deformation. To overcome this instability issue, an energy and momentum conserving composite implicit time integration scheme presented by Bathe and Baig is used for the nonlinear dynamic analysis. It is also found that a proper selection of the penalty parameter is very crucial in the simulation of contact condition. It is shown that an improper selection of penalty parameter in the augmented Lagrangian formulation may lead to erroneous prediction of dynamic response of composite delaminated plates. Uncertainties associated with the mathematical characterization of a structure can lead to unreliable damage detection. Composite structures also show considerable scatter in their structural response due to large uncertainties associated with their material properties. Probabilistic analysis is carried out to estimate material uncertainty effects in the nonlinear frequencies of composite plates. Monte Carlo Simulation with Latin Hypercube Sampling technique is used to obtain the variance of linear and nonlinear natural frequencies of the plate due to randomness in its material properties. Numerical results are obtained for composite plates with different aspect ratio, stacking sequence and oscillation amplitude ratio. It is found that the nonlinear frequencies show increasing non-Gaussian probability density function with increasing amplitude of vibration and show dual peaks at high amplitude ratios. This chaotic nature of the dispersion of nonlinear eigenvalues is also revealed in eigenvalue sensitivity analysis. For fault isolation, variations in natural frequencies, modal curvatures and curvature damage factors due to damage are investigated. Effects of various physical uncertainties like, material and geometric uncertainties on the success of damage detection is studied. A robust structural damage detection system is developed based on the statistical information available from the probabilistic analysis carried out on beam type structures. A new fault isolation technique called sliding window defuzzifier is proposed to maximize the success rate of a Fuzzy Logic System (FLS) in damage detection. Using the changes in structural measurements between the damaged and undamaged state, a fuzzy system is generated and the rule-base and membership functions are generated using probabilistic informations. The FLS is demonstrated using frequency and mode shape based measurements for various beam type structures such as uniform cantilever beam, tapered beam in single as well as in multiple damage conditions. The robustness of the FLS is demonstrated with respect to the highly uncertain input information called measurement deltas (MDs). It is said, if uncertainty level is larger than or close to the changes in damage indicator due to damage, the true information would be submerged in the noise. Then the actual damaged members may not be identified accurately and/or the healthy members may be wrongly detected as damaged giving false warning. However, this being the case, the proposed FLS with new fault isolation technique tested with these noisy data having large variation and overlaps shows excellent robustness. It is observed that the FLS accurately predicts and isolates the damage levels up-to considerable uncertainty and noise levels in single as well as multiple damage conditions. The robustness of the FLS is also demonstrated for delamination detection in composite plates having very high material property uncertainty. Effects of epistemic uncertainty on damage detection in composite plates is addressed. The effectiveness of the proposed refined Reddy type shear deformable composite plate element is demonstrated for reducing the modeling or epistemic uncertainty in delamination detection.