Iñaki Garmendia

MoSx lubricant coatings produced by PVD technologies

Abstract Among the different options for solid lubrication, MoS2 is probably the most attractive due to its extremely low friction levels. Recent developments in magnetron sputtering physical vapour deposition (PVD) technology have allowed the development of MoS2 composite thin films with more compact structures, low friction behaviour and enhanced wear resistance, reducing degradation by humidity. The present work provides an overview of recent developments in dry lubrication with MoS2 films deposited by modern sputtering PVD and how these MoS2 films alloyed with Ti or WC can outperform conventional unalloyed films not only under vacuum but also under atmospheric high humidity conditions. MoSx–WC composite films outperform MoSx–Ti films, showing endurance at 0·75 GPa as high as 1·2 million wear cycles, also significantly higher than the values obtained from unalloyed, conventional MoS2 thin solid films. The films also exhibit a steady state friction coefficient from 0·02 to 0·04. In addition, these films also show resistance to humid environment when tested under atmospheric conditions.

Multidisciplinary Assessment of the Control of the Propellers of a Pusher Geared Open Rotor—Part II: Impact on Fuel Consumption, Engine Weight, Certification Noise, and NOx Emissions

Due to their high propulsive efficiency, counter-rotating open rotors (CRORs) have the potential to significantly reduce fuel consumption and emissions relative to conventional high bypass ratio turbofans. However, this novel engine architecture presents many design and operational challenges both at engine and aircraft level. The assessment of the impact of the main low-pressure preliminary design and control parameters of CRORs on mission fuel burn, certification noise, and emissions is necessary at preliminary design stages in order to identify optimum design regions. These assessments may also aid the development process when compromises need to be performed as a consequence of design, operational, or regulatory constraints. Part I of this two-part publication presents a novel 0D performance model for counter-rotating propellers (CRPs) allowing an independent definition of the design and operation of each of the propellers. In Part II, the novel CRP model is used to create an engine performance model of a geared open rotor (GOR). This engine model is integrated in a multidisciplinary simulation platform which was used to assess the impact of the control of the propellers, on specific fuel consumption (SFC), engine weight, certification noise, and NOx emission, for a GOR with a 10% clipped rear propeller designed for a 160 PAX and 5700 NM aircraft. The main conclusions of the study are: (1) Minimum SFC control schedules were identified for climb, cruise, and descent (high-rotational speeds for high thrust and lowrotational speeds for low thrust), (2) SFC reductions up to 2% in cruise and 23% in descent can be achieved by using the minimum SFC control. However, the relatively high SFC reductions in descent SFC result in similar to 3.5% fuel saving for a 500 NM and similar to 0.7% fuel saving for a full range mission, (3) at least 2-3 dB noise reductions for both sideline and flyover can be achieved by reducing the rotational speeds of the propellers at a cost of similar to 6% increase of landing and takeoff cycle (LTO) NOx and 10K increase in turbine entry temperature, (4) approach noise can be reduced by at least 2 dB by reducing CRP rotational speeds with an associated reduction of similar to 0.6% in LTO NOx, and (5) the control of the CRP at takeoff has a large impact on differential planetary gearbox (DPGB) weight, but it is almost identical in magnitude and opposite to the change in low-pressure turbine (LPT) and CRP weight. Consequently, the control of the CRP at takeoff has a negligible impact in overall engine weight.

Multidisciplinary Assessment of the Control of the Propellers of a Pusher Geared Open Rotor—Part I: Zero-Dimensional Performance Model for Counter-Rotating Propellers

Due to their high propulsive efficiency, counter-rotating open rotors (CRORs) have the potential to significantly reduce fuel consumption and emissions relative to conventional high bypass ratio turbofans. However, this novel engine architecture presents many design and operational challenges both at engine and aircraft level. The assessment of the impact of the main low-pressure preliminary design and control parameters of CRORs on mission fuel burn, certification noise, and emissions is necessary at preliminary design stages in order to identify optimum design regions. These assessments may also aid the development process when compromises need to be performed as a consequence of design, operational, or regulatory constraints. The required preliminary design simulation tools should ideally be 0D or 1D (for computational purposes) and should capture the impact of the independent variation of the main low-pressure system design and control variables, such as the number of blades, diameter and rotational speed of each propeller, the spacing between the propellers, and the torque ratio (TR) of the gearbox or the counter-rotating turbine (CRT), among others. From a performance point of view, counter-rotating propellers (CRPs) have historically been modeled as single propellers. Such a performance model does not provide the required flexibility for a detailed design and control study. Part I of this two-part publication presents a novel 0D performance model for CRPs allowing an independent definition of the design and operation of each of the propellers. It is based on the classical low-speed performance model for individual propellers, the interactions between them, and a compressibility correction which is applied to both propellers. The proposed model was verified with publicly available wind tunnel test data from NASA and was judged to be suitable for preliminary design studies of geared and direct drive open rotors. The model has to be further verified with high-speed wind tunnel test data of highly loaded propellers, which was not found in the public domain. In Part II, the novel CRP model is used to produce a performance model of a geared open rotor (GOR) engine with a 10% clipped propeller designed for a 160 PAX and 5700 NM aircraft. This engine model is first used to study the impact of the control of the propellers on the engine specific fuel consumption (SFC). Subsequently, it was integrated in a multidisciplinary simulation platform to study the impact of the control of the propellers on engine weight, certification noise, and NOx emission.

Direct Resistive Heating Simulation Tool for the Repair of Aerospace Structures through Composite Patches

Bonded composite patches are very appropriate for aircraft structural repair, showing very good properties when compared with traditional mechanical fastening of metal sheets. The curing process of the composite patch must be done “onsite” and a direct resistive heating method has been proposed. The heat produced by the electric current through the Joule effect when crossing the patch carbon fibre bundles has been modelled with a Finite Element Program code, developed for the electric current equation. The heat conduction equation has also been modelled in the program, as well as the kinetics of the curing reaction of the composite resin. The electric resistivity of the materials is function of the temperature, so a nonlinear coupled system has been developed. Therefore, a complete simulation tool able to study different configurations, current intensities, materials, etc. for the composite patches is presented. A study case has been run with the developed code and results have been compared with experimental values. Good agreement is found.

Performance of Gradient-Based Solutions versus Genetic Algorithms in the Correlation of Thermal Mathematical Models of Spacecrafts

The correlation of the thermal mathematical models (TMMs) of spacecrafts with the results of the thermal test is a demanding task in terms of time and effort. Theoretically, it can be automatized by means of optimization techniques, although this is a challenging task. Previous studies have shown the ability of genetic algorithms to perform this task in several cases, although some limitations have been detected. In addition, gradient-based methods, although also presenting some limitations, have provided good solutions in other technical fields. For this reason, the performance of genetic algorithms and gradient-based methods in the correlation of TMMs is discussed in this paper to compare the pros and cons of them. The case of study used in the comparison is a real space instrument flown aboard the International Space Station.

Preliminary Design Assessments of Pusher Geared Counter-Rotating Open Rotors: Part I — Low Pressure System Design Choices, Engine Preliminary Design Philosophy and Modelling Methodology

In this 2-part publication, the impact of the main low pressure system parameters of a pusher counter rotating Geared Open Rotor (GOR) on mission fuel burn, certification noise and emissions is presented for a 160 PAX medium haul class aircraft.Due to their high propulsive efficiency, GORs have the potential to significantly reduce fuel consumption and emissions relative to conventional high bypass ratio turbofans. However, this novel engine architecture presents many design and operational challenges both at engine and aircraft level.The assessment of the impact of the main low pressure preliminary design parameters of GORs on mission fuel burn, certification noise and emissions is necessary at preliminary design stages in order to identify optimum design regions. These assessments may also aid the development process when compromises need to be performed as a consequence of design, operational or regulatory constraints.Part I of this two-part publication describes the main low pressure (LP) system design choices for a GOR as well as the preliminary design philosophy and simulation framework developed for the assessments. Part II presents the assessment studies. The simulation framework described in this paper comprises the following models: engine and aircraft performance, engine mechanical design and weight, engine certification noise and emissions.A novel aspect of the presented simulation framework is that the design point efficiency and the design feasibility of the low pressure components are calculated for each engine design.Copyright

Preliminary Design Assessments of Pusher Geared Counter-Rotating Open Rotors: Part II — Impact of Low Pressure System Design on Mission Fuel Burn, Certification Noise and Emissions

In this 2-part publication, the impact of the main low pressure system parameters of a counter rotating Geared Open Rotor (GOR) on mission fuel burn, certification noise and emissions is presented for a 160 PAX medium haul class aircraft.Due to their high propulsive efficiency, GORs have the potential to significantly reduce fuel consumption and emissions relative to conventional high bypass ratio turbofans. However, this novel engine architecture presents many design and operational challenges both at engine and aircraft level.The assessment of the impact of the main low pressure preliminary design parameters of GORs on mission fuel burn, certification noise and emissions is necessary at preliminary design stages in order to identify optimum design regions. These assessments may also aid the development process when compromises need to be performed as a consequence of design, operational or regulatory constraints.Part I of this two-part publication describes the main low pressure (LP) system design choices for a GOR as well as the preliminary design philosophy and simulation framework developed for the assessments. Part II presents the assessment studies. A fixed reference aircraft and mission were used to evaluate the different GOR engine designs. The results are presented in the form of 1-D or 2-D plots in which one or two design parameters are varied at the same time. The changes in mission fuel burn, certification noise and emissions are expressed as differences relative to a baseline design, due to the fact that preliminary design tools were used for the assessments. The main conclusions of the study are:• Increasing spacing between the propellers (from 0.65 to 1.3m) reduces noise significantly (∼6 EPNdB for each certification point) with a relatively small fuel burn penalty (∼0.3–0.5%)• Relative to unclipped designs, 20% clipped CRPs reduce flyover noise by at least 2.5 EPNdB and approach noise by at least 4.5 EPNdB. The corresponding fuel burn penalty is ∼2%.• Sideline and flyover noise can be reduced by increasing the diameter of the CRP and appropriately controlling CRP rotational speeds. Approach noise can be reduced by either reducing the diameters or the rotational speeds of the propellers.• Regardless of clipping, reducing the rotational speed of the rear propeller relative to the forward propeller reduces noise and, to a certain limit, also mission fuel burn. Further reductions in rotational speed would have an adverse effect on fuel burn.• For given rotational speeds of the propellers, the torque ratio of the gearbox is fixed within ±3%.Copyright