There is currently a great deal of interest within the aviation community in the design of small, slow-flying but manoeuvrable uninhabited vehicles for reconnaissance, surveillance, and search and rescue operations in urban environments. Inspired by observation of birds, insects, fish and cetaceans, flapping wings are being actively studied in the hope that they may provide greater propulsive efficiencies than propellers and rotors at low Reynolds numbers for such Micro-Air Vehicles (MAVs). Researchers have posited the Strouhal number (combining flapping frequency, amplitude and forward speed) as the parameter controlling flapping wing aerodynamics in cruising flight, although there is conflicting evidence. This thesis explores the effect of flapping frequency and amplitude on forces and wake structures, as well as physical mechanisms leading to optimum propulsive efficiency. Two-dimensional rigid airfoils are considered at Reynolds number 2,000 ??? 40,000. A compressible Navier-Stokes simulation is combined with numerical and analytical potential flow techniques to isolate and evaluate the effect of viscosity, leading and trailing edge vortex separation, and wake vortex dynamics. The wake structures of a plunging airfoil are shown to be sensitive to the flapping frequency independent of the Strouhal number. For a given frequency, the wake of the airfoil exhibits ???vortex lock-in??? as the amplitude of motion is increased, in a manner analogous to an oscillating circular cylinder. This is caused by interaction between the flapping frequency and the ???bluff-body??? vortex shedding frequency apparent even for streamlined airfoils at low Reynolds number. The thrust and propulsive efficiency of a plunging airfoil are also shown to be sensitive to the flapping frequency independent of Strouhal number. This dependence is the result of vortex shedding from the leading edge, and an interaction between the flapping frequency and the time for vortex formation, separation and convection over the airfoil surface. The observed propulsive efficiency peak for a pitching and plunging airfoil is shown to be the result of leading edge vortex shedding at low flapping frequencies (low Strouhal numbers), and high power requirements at large flapping amplitudes (high Strouhal numbers). The efficiency peak is governed by flapping frequency and amplitude separately, rather than the Strouhal number directly.

This thesis contributes to the state of the art in integrated design of insect-scale piezoelectric actuated flapping wing vehicles through the development of novel theoretical models for flapping wing aerodynamics and piezoelectric actuator dynamics, and integration of these models into a closed form design process. A comprehensive literature review of available engineered designs of miniature rotary and flapping wing vehicles is provided. A novel taxonomy based on wing and actuator kinematics is proposed as an effective means of classifying the large variation of vehicle configurations currently under development. The most successful insect-scale vehicles developed to date have used piezoelectric actuation, system resonance for motion amplification, and passive wing pitching. A novel analytical treatment is proposed to quantify induced power losses in normal hover that accounts for the effects of non uniform downwash, wake periodicity and effective flapping disc area. Two different quasi-steady aerodynamic modelling approaches are undertaken, one based on blade element analysis and one based on lifting line theory. Both approaches are explicitly linked to the underlying flow physics and, unlike a number of competing approaches, do not require empirical data. Models have been successfully validated against experimental and numerical data from the literature. These models have allowed improved insight into the role of the wing leading-edge vortex in lift augmentation and quantification of the comparative contributions of induced and profile drag for insect-like wings in hover. Theoretical aerodynamic analysis has been used to identify a theoretical solution for the optimum planform for a flapping wing in terms of chord and twist as a function of span. It is shown that an untwisted elliptical planform minimises profile power, whereas a more highly tapered design such as that found on a hummingbird minimises induced power. Aero-optimum wing kinematics for hovering are also assessed. It is shown that for efficient flight the flapping velocity should be constant whereas for maximum effectiveness the flapping velocity should be sinusoidal. For both cases, the wing pitching at stroke reversal should be as rapid as possible. A dynamic electromechanical model of piezoelectric bending actuators has been developed and validated against data obtained from experiments undertaken as part of this thesis. An expression for the electromechanical coupling factor (EMCF) is extracted from the analytical model and is used to understand the influence of actuator design variables on actuator performance. It is found that the variation in EMCF with design variables is similar for both static and dynamic operation, however for light damping the dynamic EMCF will typically be an order of magnitude greater than for static operation. Theoretical contributions to aerodynamic and electromechanical modelling are integrated into a low order design method for propulsion system sizing. The method is unique in that aside from mass fraction estimation, the underlying models are fully physics based. The transparency of the design method provides the designer with clear insight into effects of changing core design variables such as the maximum flapping amplitude, wing mass, transmission ratio, piezoelectric characteristics on the overall design solution. Whilst the wing mass is only around 10% of the actuator mass, the effective wing mass is 16 times the effective actuator mass for a typical transmission ratio of 10 and hence the wing mass dominates the inertial contribution to the system dynamics. For optimum aerodynamic effectiveness and efficiency it is important to achieve high flapping amplitudes, however this is typically limited by the maximum allowable field strength of the piezoelectric material used in the actuator.

Efficiency improvement is an important aspect to reduce the use of fossil-based fuel in order to achieve a sustainable future. Gas turbines are mainly fossil-fuel based turbomachines, and, therefore, efficiency improvement is still the subject of many on-going research activities in the gas turbine community. This study is incorporated into a research project that investigates design possibilities of efficiency improvement at the high pressure turbine (HPT) stage. In the search for HPT-stage efficiency gains, leading edge (LE) contouring near the endwall is one of the methods found in the published literature that has shown a potential to increase the efficiency by decreasing the amount of secondary losses. The overall objective of the thesis is to contribute to the development of gas turbine efficiency improvements in relation to the HPT stage. Particularly, the influence of the LE fillet on losses and flow structure is investigated concentrating on the secondary flow. The core investigation is of an experimental nature. Detailed investigations of the flow field in an annular sector cascade (ASC) are presented with and without the LE fillet, using a geometric replica of a modern gas turbine nozzle guide vane (NGV) with a contoured tip endwall. Furthermore, a separate investigation is performed on a hub-cooled NGV, which focuses on endwalls, specifically the interaction between the hub film cooling and the mainstream (MS). The experimental investigations indicate that the LE fillet has no significant effect on the flow and energy losses of the investigated NGV. The reason why the LE fillet does not affect the losses might be due to the use of a three-dimensional vane with an existing typical fillet over the full hub and tip profile. Findings also reveal that the complex secondary flow depends heavily on the incoming boundary layer. Oil flow visualisation for the baseline case displays a clear saddle point, with a separation line where the horseshoe (HS) vortex separates into the suction side (SS) and the pressure side (PS), whereas for the filleted case, the saddle point is not noticeable. The investigation of a cooled vane, using a tracer gas carbon dioxide (CO2), reveals that the upstream platform film coolant is concentrated along the SS surfaces and does not reach the PS of the hub surface, leaving it less protected from the hot gas. / För att åstadkomma en uthållig kraftproduktion i framtiden och en minskning i användandet av fossila bränslen är effektivitetsförbättringar av central betydelse. Gasturbiner är i grund och botten fossilbaserade turbomaskiner och därför bedrivs forsknings- och utvecklingsarbete kring verkningsgradsförbättringar. Den här studien ingår i ett forskningsprojekt som undersöker designmodifieringar med målet att höja verkningsgraden för ett högtrycksturbinsteg. Förändringar av bladets eller ledskenans framkantsgeometri nära ändväggarna har i den öppna litteraturen funnits vara en lovande metod för att minska ändväggsförlusterna. Det övergripande målet med denna studie är att bidra till utvecklingen av effektiva högtrycksturbinsteg för gasturbiner. Kärnan i undersökningen är experimentell. Särskilt påverkan från förändring av framkanten på förluster och flödesstruktur undersöks, med fokus på det sekundära flödet. Detaljerade strömningsundersökningar i ett bågformat statorgitter bestående av en geometrisk replika av en stator från en modern gasturbin presenteras, med och utan geometrisk förändring av framkanten. Vidare så genomförs en separat undersökning av en filmkyld ledskena utan framkantsförändring med fokus på interaktionen mellan filmkylningen vid inre ändväggen och huvudflödet. De experimentella undersökningarna visar att den undersökta geometriska förändringen av framkanten inte är av signifikant betydelse för strömningsförlusterna med den studerade ledskenan. Anledningen till att designförändringen inte påverkar förlusterna kan bero på användandet av en tredimensionell ledskena med en existerande typisk kärlradie mellan ledskenan och ändväggarna. Observationerna visar också att den komplexa ändväggsströmningen är starkt beroende av det inkommande gränsskiktets egenskaper. Oljevisualisering för referensledskenan visar en tydlig stagnationspunkt på ändväggen där gränsskiktet delas upp likt en hästskoformation i virvlar på sug- respektive trycksidan av ledskenan. För den modifierade framkanten har ingen tydlig stagnationspunkt på ändväggen observerats. Spårgasundersökningar med den filmkylda ledskenan visar att filmkylningen på den inre plattformen är koncentrerad längs sugsidan och når inte trycksidan på plattformen som därmed är mindre skyddad mot den varma gasströmningen. / QC 20120330

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Bats are some of the most agile flyers in nature. Their wings are highly articulated which affords them very fine control over shape and form. This thesis investigates the flight of Hipposideros Pratti. The flight pattern studied is nominally level and straight. Measured wing kinematics are used to describe the wing motion. It is shown that Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) can be used to effectively to filter the measured kinematics to eliminate outliers which usually manifest as low energy higher POD modes, but which can impact the stability of aerodynamic simulations. Through aerodynamic simulations it is established that the first two modes from the POD analysis recover 62% of the lift, and reflect a drag force instead of thrust, whereas the first three modes recover 77% of the thrust and even more lift than the native kinematics. This demonstrates that mode 2, which features a combination of spanwise twisting (pitching) and chordwise cambering, is critical for the generation of lift, and more so for thrust. Based on these inferences, it is concluded that the first 7 modes are sufficient to represent the full native kinematics. The aerodynamic simulations are conducted using the immersed boundary method on 128 processors. They utilize a grid of 31 million cells and the bat wing is represented by about 50000 surface elements. The movement of the immersed wing surface is defined by piecewise cubic splines that describe the time evolution of each control point on the wing. The major contribution of this work is the decomposition of the native kinematics into canonical flapping wing physical descriptors comprising of the flapping motion, stroke-plane deviation, pitching motion, chordwise, and spanwise cambering. It is shown that the pitching mode harvests a Leading Edge Vortex (LEV) during the upstroke to produce thrust. It also stabilizes the LEV during downstroke, as a result, larger lift and thrust production is observed. Chordwise cambering mode allows the LEV to glide over and cover a large portion of the wing thus contributing to more lift while the spanwise cambering mode mitigates the intensification of LEV during the upstroke by relative rotation of outer part of the wing ( hand wing ) with respect to the inner part of the wing ( arm wing). While this thesis concerns itself with near straight-level flight, the proposed decomposition can be applied to any complex flight maneuver and provide a basis for unified comparison not only over different bat flight regimes but also across other flying insects and birds. / MS

The Counter-Rotating Open Rotors (CROR) are identified as a possible alternative to turbofan engines for middle-range aircrafts. Providing significant fuel savings and reducing the green-house gas emissions, they may lead however to an increased noise radiation due to the absence of nacelle shielding. To properly predict the acoustic radiation of such systems is then mandatory both to reduce the source mechanisms of the isolated engine and to offer an optimal noise installation solution. Such an objective is tackled in the present thesis in two steps. In a first part, the research aims at predicting the tonal noise radiated from the first propeller of CROR mounted on the rear fuselage by means of a pylon (pusher configuration), considering both the pylon-wake and the uniform ow effects. From the Ffowcs Williams & Hawkings' formalism, three noise sources are identified. First the unsteady loading is computed using a similar procedure to the one used for the rotor-rotor wake interaction noise prediction. The velocity deficit in the pylon wake is locally expanded in two-dimensional Fourier gusts in a reference frame attached to the front rotor. The unsteady lift induced by each gust on a blade segment is calculated using a linearized analytical response function that accounts for a realistic geometry. The steady loading is the second source contribution and is evaluated using both a software based on the lifting-line theory and some numerical simulations for different reference source surfaces. Finally the thickness noise due to the blade volume displacement is included in the analysis using Isom's formulation. From the linear acoustic assumptions, all these sources modelled as equivalent acoustic dipoles rotating in a uniformly moving atmosphere are then summed to calculate the far-field noise. The whole methodology is assessed against wind-tunnel test data and reference software predictions. A parametric study considering several pylon positionings and pylon-wake configurations with blowing is performed in order to emphasize the relative contribution of the three noise sources. Secondly, the rotor- rotor wake interaction noise being recognized as the most significant contribution in isolated configuration, its modelling is completed by introducing the dynamics of the vortex occurring near the rear-rotor leading edge. A semi-analytical methodology is developed to determine a vortex attached over a at plate embedded in a uniform ow with incidence. Applied to the case of a rear blade going through a front-rotor wake, it provides a first estimate of the noise contribution of the vortex. / Les hélices contrarotatives constituent une alternative possible aux turboréacteurs pour les avions moyens- courriers. Réduisant significativement la consommation de carburant et les émissions de gaz à effet de serre, ils peuvent néanmoins conduire à un rayonnement sonore accru de par l'absence de carénage. Prédire correctement le rayonnement sonore de telles motorisations est donc indispensable pour réduire les mécanismes sources propres au moteur isolé ou assurer une solution d'installation acoustique optimale. Un tel objectif est abordé dans cette thèse en deux temps. Dans un premier temps, l’étude vise à prédire le bruit tonal rayonné par la première hélice d'un moteur monté à l'arrière du fuselage (configuration dite en pousseur), en considérant les effets du sillage du pylône supportant le moteur et de l'écoulement moyen. Partant du formalisme de Ffowcs Williams & Hawkings, trois sources sonores sont identifiées à cet effet. La charge instationnaire, tout d'abord, est calculée en s'appuyant sur une méthodologie similaire à celle utilisée pour la prédiction du bruit d'interaction de sillages entre les deux rotors. Le déficit de vitesse dans le sillage du mât est décomposé localement en rafales bidimensionnelles dans un repère attaché au rotor amont. La portance instationnaire induite par chaque rafale sur un segment de pale est calculée en utilisant une fonction de réponse analytique linéarisée considérant une géométrie réaliste. Deuxième contribution, la charge stationnaire est évaluée au moyen d'un logiciel s'appuyant sur la théorie de la ligne portante mais également via des simulations numériques pour différentes surfaces sources de référence. Enfin, le bruit d'épaisseur associé au déplacement du volume de la pale est inclus dans l'analyse à partir de la formulation d'Isom. D'après les hypothèses de l'acoustique linéaire, toutes ces sources modélisées comme des dipôles acoustiques tournant dans une atmosphère uniforme en mouvement sont ensuite sommées pour calculer le bruit en champ lointain. L'ensemble de la méthodologie est comparé à des données d'essai et des prédictions d'un logiciel de référence. Une étude paramétrique considérant plusieurs positionnements du pylône et des configurations avec soufflage est effectuée afin de bien mettre en évidence les contributions relatives des trois sources sonores. Dans un deuxième temps, le bruit d'interaction de sillages étant reconnu comme la contribution majoritaire en configuration isolée, sa modélisation est complétée en introduisant la dynamique du tourbillon se développant au voisinage du bord d'attaque du rotor aval. Une méthodologie semi-analytique est développée pour déterminer un tourbillon attaché au-dessus d'une plaque plane plongée dans un écoulement uniforme avec incidence. Appliquée au cas d'une pale aval traversant le sillage du rotor amont, elle fournit une première estimation de la contribution sonore du tourbillon.

La compréhension des mécanismes pilotes de la stabilisation des flammes-jet non-prémélangées constitue un point clé dans la caractérisation des modes opératoires des brûleurs industriels fonctionnant en régime de combustion diluée. Ce travail porte son attention sur l'étude expérimentale de l'influence de la dilution du combustible ou de l'air, sur le processus de décrochage et l'émission des polluants d'une flamme-jet non-prémélangée accrochée au brûleur. L'investigation est menée via un grand nombre d'expériences par combinaison des conditions suivantes : i) dioxyde de carbone (CO2), azote (N2), argon (Ar) et vapeur d'eau (H2Ov), sont utilisés comme diluants ; ii) deux configurations de dilution : dilution de l'air ou dilution du combustible ; iii) un couple de vitesses d'air et de combustible couvrant le domaine d'hystérésis de la flamme dans sa totalité, du régime de jet laminaire à celui de jet turbulent. Ceci permet de discriminer l'influence des effets intrinsèques à la nature du diluant de celle de l'aérodynamique des réactants (combustible et oxydant), dans la stabilité de la flamme accrochée. En particulier, les différences comportementales de la réponse de la flamme à la dilution de l'air ou à celle du combustible, sont analysées. Ces deux configurations de dilution diffèrent par deux effets de mélange, indépendants de la réaction, qui jouent un rôle important dans le cas de la dilution du combustible, mais sont négligeables dans le cas de celle de l'air : i) un effet dû à la modification de la fraction de mélange stœchiométrique. ii) un impact mécanique induit par l'apport de matière (diluants) responsable d'une augmentation de la vitesse des réactants. L'étude se divise en trois principales étapes. D'abord la réponse globale de la flamme à la dilution est étudiée via ses limites de décrochage quantifiées par les fractions molaires critiques des diluants dans l'oxydant ou dans le combustible, mesurées au décrochage. Le nombre de Peclet du combustible, Pef, est identifié comme le nombre adimensionnel qui ordonne ces limites de décrochage de manière homothétique pour tous les diluants. Grâce au comportement homothétique deux coefficients d'affinité, Kd,ox pour le cas de la dilution de l'air et Kd,f pour celle du combustible, sont introduits. Ils sont définis comme le rapport entre la limite de décrochage obtenue avec un diluant et celle obtenue avec le CO2 , à Pef = cste. Ceux-ci permettent l'établissement de deux polynômes génériques décrivant les limites de décrochage pour tous les diluants testés et dans toute la gamme des conditions aérodynamiques étudiées. En effet, Kd,ox et Kd,f englobent l'ensemble des effets physico-chimiques d'un diluant (dilution pure, thermique, propriétés de transport, chimie) et ceux des impacts mécaniques, affectant la stabilité de la flamme. Ils permettent de trouver les lois d'auto-similitude au décrochage pour un diluant chimiquement faible quelconque, à partir des résultats obtenus dans ce travail. Ensuite, une étude locale et détaillée du processus de décrochage induit par la dilution est réalisée. Celui-ci se base sur l'approche du bout propagatif décrivant la stabilité de la flamme accrochée comme résultant d'un équilibre à sa base entre la vitesse de l'écoulement et la vitesse de propagation. Afin de démontrer le lien entre cette approche et la stabilité de la flamme, une analyse approfondie des caractéristiques de sa base (localisation, intensité du radical CH* et champ de vitesses) est réalisée. Les résultats confirment la pertinence de l'approche du bout propagatif, comme mécanisme descriptif de la stabilisation de la flamme accrochée en présence de dilution. Enfin, une étude caractérisant aussi bien l'influence de la nature des diluants que celle de la configuration de dilution choisie (air ou combustible), sur l'émission des polluants (suies, NOx et CO), est présentée. / Understanding the main mechanisms piloting non-premixed jet flame stability is an important point in characterizing the operation modes of industrials burners in which dilution is involved. This work puts special emphasis on the experimental study of the influence of air-side and methane-side dilution in the lifting process of attached non-premixed jet flames. The study is based on numerous experiments combining the following conditions : i) carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrogen (N2), argon (Ar) or water vapor (H20v,) used as diluents d ; ii) two diluted configurations : air-side or methane-side dilution ; iii) two air and fuel velocities covering the entire flame hysteresis domain, from the laminar to the turbulent regime. This allows the influence of the intrinsic diluent nature effects to be discriminated from those of the aerodynamics of the reactants (fuel and oxidant), in attached flame stability. In particular, the behavioral differences of the flame response to air-side or to fuel-side dilution are analyzed. These two configurations differ by two mixing effects which are independent of the combustion reaction, and which are significant when the fuel is diluted, but negligible when air is diluted : i) an effect due to the changes in the stoichiometric mixture fraction ; ii) a mechanical impact induced by the addition of matter (diluents) producing an increase in the bulk velocity of the reactants. The study is composed of three parts. First, the global flame response to dilution is analyzed on the basis of the lifting limits defined as the critical molar fractions of the diluents in the fuel or in the oxidant measured at liftoff. The fuel Peclet number, Pef, appears as the dimensionless number which puts these limits in a homothetic order. This homothetic behavior allows the introduction of two affinity parameters, Kd,ox for air-side dilution and Kd,f for fuel-side dilution. They are defined by the ratio of the flame lifting limits calculated with a diluent d and with CO2, at Pef=const. Kd,ox and Kd, allow two generic polynomial laws to be established describing the flame lifting limits for all the diluents and in the whole range of aerodynamic conditions of this study. Indeed, Kd,ox and Kd,f encompass all the diluent effects affecting flame stability (pure dilution, thermal, transport, chemical), to which mechanical impacts are added. These coefficients make it possible to obtain the self-similarity laws of the lifting limits for any chemically-weak diluent, by using the results obtained in this work. Then, a local and detailed study of the flame lifting process induced by dilution is presented. This is based on the flame-leading-edge approach describing flame stability as a result of the balance between the incoming gas velocity of the reactants and the flame propagation velocity at the flame base. In order to show the link between this approach and flame stability, an extensive analysis of the flame-base characteristics (location, CH* emission intensity and velocity field) is carried out. The results attest to the pertinence of the propagative flame-leading-edge, as the mechanism describing the attached flame stability under dilution. Finally, a study concerning the influence of both the diluent nature and the diluted configuration (air or fuel) on pollutant emissions (soot, NOx and CO) is presented.