TY - JOUR A1 - Laarmann, Lukas A1 - Thoma, Andreas A1 - Misch, Philipp A1 - Röth, Thilo A1 - Braun, Carsten A1 - Watkins, Simon A1 - Fard, Mohammad T1 - Automotive safety approach for future eVTOL vehicles JF - CEAS Aeronautical Journal N2 - The eVTOL industry is a rapidly growing mass market expected to start in 2024. eVTOL compete, caused by their predicted missions, with ground-based transportation modes, including mainly passenger cars. Therefore, the automotive and classical aircraft design process is reviewed and compared to highlight advantages for eVTOL development. A special focus is on ergonomic comfort and safety. The need for further investigation of eVTOL’s crashworthiness is outlined by, first, specifying the relevance of passive safety via accident statistics and customer perception analysis; second, comparing the current state of regulation and certification; and third, discussing the advantages of integral safety and applying the automotive safety approach for eVTOL development. Integral safety links active and passive safety, while the automotive safety approach means implementing standardized mandatory full-vehicle crash tests for future eVTOL. Subsequently, possible crash impact conditions are analyzed, and three full-vehicle crash load cases are presented. KW - eVTOL development KW - eVTOL safety KW - Crashworthiness KW - Automotive safety approach KW - Full-vehicle crash test Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s13272-023-00655-0 SN - 1869-5590 (Online) SN - 1869-5582 (Print) N1 - Corresponding author: Lukas Laarmann PB - Springer Nature ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Funke, Harald A1 - Beckmann, Nils A1 - Keinz, Jan A1 - Abanteriba, Sylvester T1 - Numerical and Experimental Evaluation of a Dual-Fuel Dry-Low-NOx Micromix Combustor for Industrial Gas Turbine Applications T2 - Proceedings of the ASME Turbo Expo 2017: Turbomachinery Technical Conference and Exposition. Volume 4B: Combustion, Fuels and Emissions. Charlotte, North Carolina, USA. June 26–30, 2017 N2 - The Dry-Low-NOx (DLN) Micromix combustion technology has been developed originally as a low emission alternative for industrial gas turbine combustors fueled with hydrogen. Currently the ongoing research process targets flexible fuel operation with hydrogen and syngas fuel. The non-premixed combustion process features jet-in-crossflow-mixing of fuel and oxidizer and combustion through multiple miniaturized flames. The miniaturization of the flames leads to a significant reduction of NOx emissions due to the very short residence time of reactants in the flame. The paper presents the results of a numerical and experimental combustor test campaign. It is conducted as part of an integration study for a dual-fuel (H2 and H2/CO 90/10 Vol.%) Micromix combustion chamber prototype for application under full scale, pressurized gas turbine conditions in the auxiliary power unit Honeywell Garrett GTCP 36-300. In the presented experimental studies, the integration-optimized dual-fuel Micromix combustor geometry is tested at atmospheric pressure over a range of gas turbine operating conditions with hydrogen and syngas fuel. The experimental investigations are supported by numerical combustion and flow simulations. For validation, the results of experimental exhaust gas analyses are applied. Despite the significantly differing fuel characteristics between pure hydrogen and hydrogen-rich syngas the evaluated dual-fuel Micromix prototype shows a significant low NOx performance and high combustion efficiency. The combustor features an increased energy density that benefits manufacturing complexity and costs. Y1 - 2017 SN - 978-0-7918-5085-5 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1115/GT2017-64795 N1 - Paper No. GT2017-64795, V04BT04A045 PB - ASME CY - New York ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Böhnisch, Nils A1 - Braun, Carsten A1 - Muscarello, Vincenzo A1 - Marzocca, Pier T1 - About the wing and whirl flutter of a slender wing–propeller system JF - Journal of Aircraft N2 - Next-generation aircraft designs often incorporate multiple large propellers attached along the wingspan (distributed electric propulsion), leading to highly flexible dynamic systems that can exhibit aeroelastic instabilities. This paper introduces a validated methodology to investigate the aeroelastic instabilities of wing–propeller systems and to understand the dynamic mechanism leading to wing and whirl flutter and transition from one to the other. Factors such as nacelle positions along the wing span and chord and its propulsion system mounting stiffness are considered. Additionally, preliminary design guidelines are proposed for flutter-free wing–propeller systems applicable to novel aircraft designs. The study demonstrates how the critical speed of the wing–propeller systems is influenced by the mounting stiffness and propeller position. Weak mounting stiffnesses result in whirl flutter, while hard mounting stiffnesses lead to wing flutter. For the latter, the position of the propeller along the wing span may change the wing mode shapes and thus the flutter mechanism. Propeller positions closer to the wing tip enhance stability, but pusher configurations are more critical due to the mass distribution behind the elastic axis. Y1 - 2024 U6 - https://doi.org/10.2514/1.C037542 SN - 1533-3868 SP - 1 EP - 14 PB - AIAA CY - Reston, Va. ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Böhnisch, Nils A1 - Braun, Carsten A1 - Muscarello, Vincenzo A1 - Marzocca, Pier T1 - A sensitivity study on aeroelastic instabilities of slender wings with a large propeller JF - AIAA SCITECH 2023 Forum N2 - Next-generation aircraft designs often incorporate multiple large propellers attached along the wingspan. These highly flexible dynamic systems can exhibit uncommon aeroelastic instabilities, which should be carefully investigated to ensure safe operation. The interaction between the propeller and the wing is of particular importance. It is known that whirl flutter is stabilized by wing motion and wing aerodynamics. This paper investigates the effect of a propeller onto wing flutter as a function of span position and mounting stiffness between the propeller and wing. The analysis of a comparison between a tractor and pusher configuration has shown that the coupled system is more stable than the standalone wing for propeller positions near the wing tip for both configurations. The wing fluttermechanism is mostly affected by the mass of the propeller and the resulting change in eigenfrequencies of the wing. For very weak mounting stiffnesses, whirl flutter occurs, which was shown to be stabilized compared to a standalone propeller due to wing motion. On the other hand, the pusher configuration is, as to be expected, the more critical configuration due to the attached mass behind the elastic axis. Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2023-1893 N1 - AIAA SCITECH 2023 Forum, 23-27 January 2023, National Harbor, MD & Online SP - 1 EP - 14 PB - AIAA CY - Reston, Va. ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Thoma, Andreas A1 - Stiemer, Luc A1 - Braun, Carsten A1 - Fisher, Alex A1 - Gardi, Alessandro G. T1 - Potential of hybrid neural network local path planner for small UAV in urban environments T2 - AIAA SCITECH 2023 Forum N2 - This work proposes a hybrid algorithm combining an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) with a conventional local path planner to navigate UAVs efficiently in various unknown urban environments. The proposed method of a Hybrid Artificial Neural Network Avoidance System is called HANNAS. The ANN analyses a video stream and classifies the current environment. This information about the current Environment is used to set several control parameters of a conventional local path planner, the 3DVFH*. The local path planner then plans the path toward a specific goal point based on distance data from a depth camera. We trained and tested a state-of-the-art image segmentation algorithm, PP-LiteSeg. The proposed HANNAS method reaches a failure probability of 17%, which is less than half the failure probability of the baseline and around half the failure probability of an improved, bio-inspired version of the 3DVFH*. The proposed HANNAS method does not show any disadvantages regarding flight time or flight distance. Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2023-2359 N1 - AIAA SCITECH 2023 Forum, 23-27 January 2023, National Harbor, Md & Online PB - AIAA CY - Reston, Va. ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Reimer, Lars A1 - Braun, Carsten A1 - Wellmer, Georg A1 - Behr, Marek A1 - Ballmann, Josef T1 - Development of a modular method for computational aero-structural analysis of aircraft T2 - Summary of flow modulation and fluid-structure interaction findings. Results of the Collaborative Research Center SFB 401 at the RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany, 1997-2008 / ed.: Wolfgang Schröder. Notes on numerical fluid mechanics and multidisciplinary design. Vol. 109 Y1 - 2010 SN - 978-3-642-04087-0 SP - 205 EP - 238 PB - Springer CY - Berlin ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Bergmann, Kevin A1 - Gräbener, Josefine A1 - Wild, Dominik A1 - Ulfers, H. A1 - Czupalla, Markus T1 - Study on thermal stabilization of a GEO-stationary telescope baffling system by integral application of phase change material T2 - International Conference on Environmental Systems N2 - The utilization of phase change material (PCM) for latent heat storage and thermal control of spacecraft has been demonstrated in the past in few missions only. One limiting factor was the fact that all concepts developed so far envisioned the PCM to be applied as an additional capacitor, encapsulated in its own housing, leading to mass, efficiency and accommodation challenges. Recently, the application of PCM within the scan cavity of a GEOS type satellite has been suggested, in order to tackle thermal issues due to direct sun intrusion (Choi, M., 2014). However, the application of PCM in such complex mechanical structures is extremely challenging. A new concept to tackle this issue is currently under development at the FH Aachen University of Applied Sciences. The concept "Infused Thermal Solutions (ITS)" is based on the idea to 3D print metallic structures in their regular functional shape, but double walled with internal lattice support structures, allowing the infusion of a PCM layer directly into the voids and eliminating the need for additional parts and interfaces. Together with OHB System, FH Aachen theoretically studied the application of this technology to the Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) Infra-Red Sounder (IRS) instrument. The study focuses on the scan cavity and entrance baffling assembly (EBA) of the IRS. It consists of thermal analyses, 3D-redesign and bread boarding of a scaled and PCM infused EBA version. In the thermal design of the alternative EBA, PCM was applied directly into the EBA, simulating the worst hot case sun intrusion of the mission. By applying 4kg of PCM (to a 60kg baffle) the EBA temperature excursions during sun intrusion were limited from 140K to 30K, leading to a significant thermo-opto-elastic performance gain. This paper introduces the ITS concept development status. Y1 - 2019 N1 - 49th International Conference on Environmental Systems, 7-11 July 2019, Boston, Massachusetts ; ICES-2019-72 SP - 1 EP - 14 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ulmer, Jessica A1 - Braun, Sebastian A1 - Cheng, Chi-Tsun A1 - Dowey, Steve A1 - Wollert, Jörg T1 - A human factors-aware assistance system in manufacturing based on gamification and hardware modularisation JF - International Journal of Production Research N2 - Assistance systems have been widely adopted in the manufacturing sector to facilitate various processes and tasks in production environments. However, existing systems are mostly equipped with rigid functional logic and do not provide individual user experiences or adapt to their capabilities. This work integrates human factors in assistance systems by adjusting the hardware and instruction presented to the workers’ cognitive and physical demands. A modular system architecture is designed accordingly, which allows a flexible component exchange according to the user and the work task. Gamification, the use of game elements in non-gaming contexts, has been further adopted in this work to provide level-based instructions and personalised feedback. The developed framework is validated by applying it to a manual workstation for industrial assembly routines. KW - Human factors KW - assistance system KW - gamification KW - adaptive systems KW - manufacturing Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1080/00207543.2023.2166140 SN - 0020-7543 (Print) SN - 1366-588X (Online) PB - Taylor & Francis ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wild, Dominik A1 - Schrezenmeier, Johannes A1 - Czupalla, Markus A1 - Förstner, Roger T1 - Thermal Characterization of additive manufactured Integral Structures for Phase Change Applications JF - 2020 International Conference on Environmental Systems N2 - “Infused Thermal Solutions” (ITS) introduces a method for passive thermal control to stabilize structural components thermally without active heating and cooling systems, by using phase change material (PCM) in combination with lattice – both embedded into an additive manufactured integral structure. The technology is currently under development. This paper presents the results of the thermal property measurements performed on additive manufactured ITS breadboards. Within the breadboard campaigns key characteristics of the additive manufactured specimens were derived: Mechanical parameters: specimen impermeability, minimum wall thickness, lattice structure, subsequent heat treatment. Thermal properties: thermo-optical surface properties of the additive manufactured raw material, thermal conductivity and specific heat capacity measurements. As a conclusion the paper introduces an overview of potential ITS hardware applications, expected to increase the thermal performance. Y1 - 2020 PB - Texas Tech University ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schopen, Oliver A1 - Narayan, Sriram A1 - Beckmann, Marvin A1 - Najmi, Aezid-Ul-Hassan A1 - Esch, Thomas A1 - Shabani, Bahman T1 - An EIS approach to quantify the effects of inlet air relative humidity on the performance of proton exchange membrane fuel cells: a pathway to developing a novel fault diagnostic method JF - International Journal of Hydrogen Energy N2 - In this work, the effect of low air relative humidity on the operation of a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell is investigated. An innovative method through performing in situ electrochemical impedance spectroscopy is utilised to quantify the effect of inlet air relative humidity at the cathode side on internal ionic resistances and output voltage of the fuel cell. In addition, algorithms are developed to analyse the electrochemical characteristics of the fuel cell. For the specific fuel cell stack used in this study, the membrane resistance drops by over 39 % and the cathode side charge transfer resistance decreases by 23 % after increasing the humidity from 30 % to 85 %, while the results of static operation also show an increase of ∼2.2 % in the voltage output after increasing the relative humidity from 30 % to 85 %. In dynamic operation, visible drying effects occur at < 50 % relative humidity, whereby the increase of the air side stoichiometry increases the drying effects. Furthermore, other parameters, such as hydrogen humidification, internal stack structure, and operating parameters like stoichiometry, pressure, and temperature affect the overall water balance. Therefore, the optimal humidification range must be determined by considering all these parameters to maximise the fuel cell performance and durability. The results of this study are used to develop a health management system to ensure sufficient humidification by continuously monitoring the fuel cell polarisation data and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy indicators. KW - PEM fuel cell KW - Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy KW - Relative air humidity KW - Active humidity control KW - Impedance analysis Y1 - 2024 SN - 0360-3199 (print) U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2024.01.218 SN - 1879-3487 (online) VL - 58 IS - 8 SP - 1302 EP - 1315 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER -