Online Learning
Design Synthesis Exercise (DSE) 2021
Unmanned aerial vehicle for fire hazard
In the near future, the delivery of first-aid medical equipment in situations when life is at stake can become possible through unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). The methodology reduces risks of delays resulting from road congestion, thus making this the ideal solution in a number of medical-related applications. The objective of this project is to design an UAV equipped with oxygen supply for the treatment of severe cases of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), with min-payload of 10 kg. The vehicle should be fire-proof, to have access to fire scenarios to supply oxygen to intoxicated patients. The system should be VTOL capable, able to autonomously fly over a range of 10 km with a cruise speed up to 100 km/h. The vehicle should respect noise and emission regulations over urban areas, and it should be equipped with a visual and audible warning system when approaching the ground.
Supervisors:
Dr. Daniele Fiscaletti, dr. Daniele Ragni
Monitoring drone system for air quality, noise, and turbulence in the urban environment
As alternatives to ground-based transportation, the sustainable cities of the future will host many operations of advanced air mobility vehicles, for: drone delivery, smart monitoring, emergency transportation and taxiing. The DSE here proposed focuses on a system that (1) can perform real-time monitoring of health hazards and (2) can conduct surveys to characterize hazards in the urban environment. The hazards to be tackled are: high-turbulence wind-profiles within the urban environment (i.e. gusts) as they dictate aspects of the safe operation of advanced air mobility; air pollutants that the urban community are exposed to. The objective is to design a deployable drone-based monitoring and surveying system, capable of mapping out turbulence, air pollutants and aeroacoustic noise. The system should consist of multiple drones in a swarm-based configuration to yield high resolution spatial data for a full day, on a given site.
Supervisors:
Dr. Woutijn Baars, dr. Daniele Ragni
Multi-disciplinary Projects 2021
BAP eVOL, joint vehicle project between EWI and FPT
The main challenge of the BAP for this team is to create an eVTOL that has a maximum lift-off weight of 2500 kilograms and can lift as much load as possible. This poses a challenge as a vehicle needs to be designed which can most efficiently output all the power needed to lift itself and its payload vertically into the air. The two main sections for this challenge were decided upon to be the vertical take-off and the horizontal propulsion. Next to these two sections another section was devoted to additional criteria that come to play in the design of this particular eVTOL.
Supervisors:
Dr. Jianning Dong, Gautham Ram Chandra Mouli
Open MSc Thesis projects
MSc students interested in a topic of the open/running MSc projects can contact the supervisors/MSc students involved in the project for further details. Even though some projects are running, the same topic may be addressed by new, interested MSc students.
The Port of Rotterdam is looking for an intern working as Innovation Scout in the field of Urban Air Mobility, with possibility to combine with MSc thesis.
Propellers are a popular means of propulsion in the world of aviation. Their use has recently landed in the world of small aircraft such as drones,and will probably also be used as thrusters on modern UAM aircrafts. Given the proximity these aircraft may have to populated areas, it is essential that the propellers provide the necessary force to fly, but at the same time generate as little noise as possible. In addition, making propulsion more efficient is also important to reduce energy consumption.
The main goal of this thesis is to investigate different blade tip geometries, with the aim of reducing the noise produced and improving the overall aerodynamic performance. In fact, the tip vortex is a source of broadband noise and its perturbation inthe surrounding flow can negatively affect the performance of the whole propeller. The development will be performed through a CFD solver based on LBM/VLES technology.
Supervisors:
Dr. Francesco Avallone, Prof. Damiano Casalino and Dr. Daniele Ragni
Most Electric Vertical Take-off-and-Landing (eVTOL) vehicles designed for UAM use multiple rotors for vertical flight. Such systems are known to be prone to the Vortex Ring State (VRS) during descent. The VRS may arise when the vehicle descent speed causes the rotor to ingest its own wake, resulting in abrupt loss of thrust and controllability.
The aim of this thesis is to determine the flow pattern around a propeller in VRS and understand how it affects the flight mechanics characteristics. An experimental investigation is conducted to determine the velocity field around the propeller in both axial and oblique descent, through Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV). The data from PIV measurements are used to simulate a VTOL (helicopter) in descent.
How does the flow pattern change in a multi-rotor configuration? And if the rotor is ducted? Many aspects can be interesting source questions for possible future research.
Supervisors:
Prof. Fulvio Scarano, Prof. Marilena D. Pavel, Ir. Hasse N. J. Dekker
Supervisors:
Dr. Francesco Avallone, Reynard de Vries, Dr. Daniele Ragni
Student:
Alexandros Koutsoukos
Supervisors:
Dr. Francesco Avallone, Prof. Damiano Casalino
Student:
Andrea Cavini