Features of the antennae, maxillary palps, and mouthparts of the females of seven species of Culicoides spp. biting midges collected from a montane rainforest site in Trinidad, West Indies, were studied by light and scanning electron microscopy. Comparisons were made with two British species, Culicoides impunctatus and Culicoides nubeculosus. Species-specific differences were demonstrated in th...

The present paper aims at describing and comparing different small Vertical Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT) architectures, in terms of performance and loads. These characteristics can be highlighted by resorting to the Blade Element-Momentum (BE-M) model, commonly adopted for rotor pre-design and controller assessment. After validating the model with experimental data, the paper focuses on the analysi...

In this paper, a morphing carbon fibre composite aerofoil concept with an active trailing edge is proposed. This aerofoil features of camber morphing with multiple degrees of freedom. The shape morphing is enabled by an innovative structure driven by an electrical actuation system that uses linear ultrasonic motors (LUSM) with compliant runners, enabling a full control of multiple degrees of fr...

With the increasing rise of professionalism in sport, athletes, teams, and coaches are looking to technology to monitor performance in both games and training in order to find a competitive advantage. The use of inertial sensors has been proposed as a cost effective and adaptable measurement device for monitoring wheelchair kinematics; however, the outcomes are dependent on the reliability of t...

A rapid shape parameterization tool called PROTEUS is developed for aircraft shape optimization. This tool can be applied directly to any aircraft geometry that has been defined in PLOT3D format, with the restriction that each aircraft component must be defined by only one data block. PROTEUS has eight types of parameterization schemes: planform, wing surface, twist, body surface, body scaling,...

Abstract A numerical investigation has been conducted on the ram-rotor with various blade-to-blade profiles to achieve potential benefits in enhancing their performance. The profile is changed by adjusting strake camber line enable formation of expansive and contractive flow paths. Results indicate that path can significantly improve total pressure ratio altering position shock trains. Subsonic...

A finite element model aimed at predicting the in-plane and out-of-plane static mechanical behavior of a tightened bow is developed. It takes into account the prestress due to hair tension and the nonlinear behavior due to large displacements. An non-destructive procedure to determine the input parameters of the model from measurements on a bow is described. Numerical and experimental results a...