Aerospace Engineering - Summary of the Current Research Activities: Compiled Spring 2005

Department of Aerospace Engineering Faculty have been responsible for a substantial amount of research, much with external funding, in the last two decades. Their efforts generally fall into the three major areas: aerodynamics/fluid mechanics, aircraft structures/solid mechanics/composites, and flight mechanics/controls/simulation. The following sections summarize faculty research interests and efforts that are underway at this time.

Aerodynamics/Fluid Mechanics

Several research activities related to the development and application of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) are on going. Specific topics include the following:
• Magnetohydrodynamics (MHD)
• Turbulent Flows
• Boundary Conditions
• Chemistry Effects
• Flow Control
• Large Eddy Simulation
• Hypersonics
• Cluster Computing
• Aeroacoustics Techniques with Applications to Propeller Noise
• Development of Computational Electromagnetics for Solving Scattering, Radiation and Electromagnetic Environmental Problems
• Wind Tunnel Wall Effects

The following research programs in theoretical and experimental aerodynamics are in progress:
• Aircraft Wake Vortex Behavior and Control
• Quantitative Measurement of Time Dependent Vortex Filament Motion
• Delta Wing Vortex Dynamics
• Cascade Aerodynamics
• Wind Tunnel Wall Effects
• Low-Reynolds Number Propellers
• Vehicles Subject to Extreme Winds
• Wind Turbine Performance and Control

A large array of aircraft icing research programs, experimental and computational, have been conducted at Wichita State in the last twenty years. The following projects are in progress at this time:
• Hot Air Anti-icing
• Pilot Simulator Training
• Tailplane Icing
• Water Droplet Impingement
• Non Hot-air Ice Protection Systems
• Effect of Critical Ice Shapes on Finite Wing Geometries
• Effect of Ice Shapes on Aerodynamic Performance and Hinge Moments
• Simulated Ice Flight Tests on a Sikorsky Helicopter
• Effect of Mixed Phase Icing Conditions on Thermal Ice Protection Systems
• Aerodynamic Scaling Experiments with Simulated Ice Accretions
• Aerodynamic Performance Evaluation of Iced Aircraft Configurations
• Ice Adhesion
• Flow Separation Over 2D Airfoils with Glaze and Spoiler Ice Shapes

Aircraft Structures/Solid Mechanics/Composites

Research activities, both theoretical and experimental, in the following general areas of solid mechanics and advanced composite materials are in progress:
• Fatigue and Fracture Investigations
• Experimental Determination of Critical Crack Tip Opening Angles for Thin Gauge Aluminum Alloys
• Residual Strength of Aluminum Panels with Multiple Site Damage
• Damage Tolerance of Composite Airframe Structures (with FAA AACE)
• Adhesive Behavior in Aircraft Applications (with FAA AACE)
• Bonded Repair of Composite Airframe Components (with FAA AACE)
• Composite Material Database (with AGATE)
• Methodology for Notched and Unnotched Design Allowables (with AGATE)
• Material Equivalence Methodology (with AGATE)
• Manufacturing Integration Document (with AGATE)
• Effects of Manufacturing Defects
• Composite Wind Turbine Blade Design and Testing (with Sandia Laboratories)
• Composite Material Properties at High-Strain Rates

Current research activities in structural dynamics, smart structures, and aircraft loads include the following:
• Data and Methodologies for Structural Life Evaluation of Small Airplanes (with FAA)
• Loads Analysis Enhancements for Small Airplanes (with FAA)
• Design and Manufacturing of Bend-Twist Coupled Wind Turbine Blades (with Sandia Laboratories)
• Gust Loads Alleviation for a High-Altitude UAV
• Basis Vectors and Modal Equations for Aeroelastic Gust Loads Analysis
• Reduced Order Models for Large Structural Dynamic Systems
• Decoupling Structural Dynamic Subsystem Models from Full System Models
• Finite Element Hierarchic Sine Series Shape Functions
• Exact Finite Element Shape Functions for Tapered Bars and Beams

Flight Mechanics/Controls/Simulation

Current research activities in Flight Mechanics, Controls, and Simulation include the following:
• Intelligent Control of Aircraft Spins
• Optical Ice Detector For Aircraft (with ADMRC)
• Piloted Flight Simulation Lab and Stereo Virtual Reality for Flight Simulation
• Fly-By-Wire Decoupled (EZ-Fly) Flight Control System For General Aviation (Raytheon Aircraft)
• Intelligent Fault Tolerant Flight Control For General Aviation (FAA and Raytheon Aircraft)
• Intelligent Quantum Computing Using Learning Algorithms From Artificial Intelligence (NSF)

Please also see: