Ramzyzan Ramly

Static stability of Baseline-II blended wing- body aircraft at low subsonic speed: Investigation via computational fluid dynamics simulation

A study of the effect of canard to Baseline-II blended wing-body aircraft is presented here with emphasis on investigating contributions of canards various setting angle to aerodynamic parameters and longitudinal static stability. A computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulation has been conducted at low subsonic speed to collect aerodynamic data and found that its aerodynamic trend is similar to many BWB aircraft and consistent to previous studies conducted in UiTM. Canard setting angle affects the value of lift-at-zero incidence of a BWB aircraft, although fairly small for current canard size that it is not adequate to produce positive pitching moment-at-zero lift. Baseline-II is partially, statically stable in longitudinal motion because of negative moment change w.r.t. lift change but it has equilibrium incidence angle that only produces negative lift. Larger canard and/or modification to Baseline-II wing-body are needed to overcome this flaw. The location of new reference point provides ‘comfortable’ static margin. Data and mathematical characteristic obtained from BL-IIA SP CFD simulation is comparable to those from wind tunnel experiment and both show satisfactory-to-good correlation to theoretical calculations.

Design and analysis for development of a wing box static test rig

Airplanes are designed to stay aloft with the help of wings on both sides. In operation at cruising speed, the wings are subjected to load as much as the weight of the whole aircraft. However during maneuver, the wings are subjected much higher load and stress and this stress should be sustained by the wings within its limit load without causing permanent deformation to the structure. In order to assess how much stress the wings are subjected to, the wings should be tested on ground which is called static test. To proof that a design is good, a numerical analysis should be verified by experimental analysis. The static test can be done in a test rig. The test rig however should be much stronger than the object to be tested. Therefore, in this paper the design parameter such design configuration, is one of the parameters to be studied in the development of the test rig. In this paper, a finite element analysis was done on the 2D model of the test rig in order to verify the parametric design. Using ANSYS Workbench V12.1, an alteration was made to compare if the initial design was good or can be made better.

Embedded FBG Sensor in Aircraft Smart Composite Materials for Structural Monitoring

This paper describes the use of embedded Fiber Brag Grating (FBG) sensor in the honeycomb core carbon fiber sandwich panel in smart composite materials for the application of monitoring the structural integrity of an aircraft. A part of vertical stabilizer was selected and reproduced using carbon fiber honeycomb core sandwich panels. The sandwich panel was fabricated in accordance to the generic sandwich structure and aviation industry standards, including the materials and also the method of construction. Using a carbon fiber from Hexcel as the face-sheet, Nomex honeycomb as the core, the sandwich panel was cured using Hysol EA9330 resin according to a standard curing process in the aviation industry. In order to make the sandwich panel as smart materials, optical sensor which has fiber bragg grating arrays, FBG, were embedded between the carbon fiber plies during the lay-out process. Using an FBG data logger and Instron 8802 Universal Testing Machine, the panel was subjected to flexural load and the FBG sensor signals were read at the load interval of 0.2 kN. From the experiment the results were taken and data was plotted and it shows that the FBG signals responded well to the load applied. In the future, the specimen will be used for further experiment for measuring strains and establishing the existence of damage in the panel.