This work proposes a feedback control strategy to let the dynamics of an underactuated Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) aerial vehicle to track a desired trajectory thanks to an adaptive robust compensation of the aerodynamic disturbances. The novelty of the proposed approach consists in employing an aerodynamic disturbance observer derived using the NonLinear Geometric Approach and Radial ...

This paper is concerned with autopilot design for an agile missile with aerodynamic fins, thrust vectoring control, and side-jet thrusters. Two-time scale dynamic inversion is used as a nonlinear flight control law. To deal with the inherently weak robustness property of dynamic inversion, Ackermann-like formula which is a time-varying version of Ackermann formula for LTI systems is applied to ...

Experimental studies on static, non-flapping dragonfly wings have shown favorable aerodynamic performance at low Reynolds number (Re ≤ 10,000). High lift is hypothesized to arise from the dragonfly’s pleated wing structure. A numerical study of flow past a modeled dragonfly wing section as well as its comparison to a corresponding profiled airfoil and a flat plate were conducted at Re = 10,000....

The aerodynamic characteristics of the wings and body of a dragonfly and of artificial wing models were studied by conducting two types of wind-tunnel tests and a number of free-flight tests of gliders made using dragonfly wings. The results were consistent between these different tests. The effects of camber, thickness, sharpness of the leading edge and surface roughness on the aerodynamic cha...

This paper presents the aerodynamic design and economical evaluation of a 200 kW site specific wind turbine for the province of Semnan in Iran. By designing site specific wind turbines, the cost of energy which is calculated out of the annual energy production and also the cost of manufacturing the rotor are minimized. The aerodynamic design is based on the well-known blade element momentum...

  Unsteady flow separation on the airfoils with local flexible membrane (LFM) has been investigated in transient and laminar flows by the finite volume element method. A unique feature of the present method compared with the common computational fluid dynamic softwares, especially ANSYS CFX, is the modification using the physical influence scheme in convection fluxes at cell surfaces. In contr...

OPTIMAL SHAPE DESIGN OF AERODYNAMIC CONFIGURATIONS: A NEWTON-KRYLOV APPROACH Marian Nemec Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Department of Aerospace Science and Engineering University of Toronto 2003 Optimal shape design of aerodynamic configurations is a challenging problem due to the nonlinear effects of complex flow features such as shock waves, boundary layers, ...

Sexual selection and aerodynamic forces affecting structural properties of the flight feathers of birds are poorly understood. Here, we compared the structural features of the innermost primary wing feather (P1) and the sexually dimorphic outermost (Ta6) and monomorphic second outermost (Ta5) tail feathers of barn swallows (Hirundo rustica) from a Romanian population to investigate how sexual s...

The complexity of low speed maneuvering flight is apparent from the combination of two critical aspects of this behavior: high power and precise control. To understand how such control is achieved, we examined the underlying kinematics and resulting aerodynamic mechanisms of low speed turning flight in the pigeon (Columba livia). Three birds were trained to perform 90 deg level turns in a stere...

Short-term exposure to ambient particulate matter with aerodynamic diameters<10 µm were found to be positively associated with blood pressure. Yet, little information exists regarding the association between particles and circadian rhythm of blood pressure. Hence, we analyzed the association of exposure to particulate matter with aerodynamic diameters<10 µm on the day of examination and ≤7 days...