Proceedings of Aerospace Society Malaysia

Simulation Study of Heat Recovery System for a Turbofan with Intercooler and Recuperator

Ivan Chua Chi Whye — 2023-07-31

Global warming has become a big problem in the present world. Greenhouse gas emissions such as carbon dioxide is contributing to global warming and the aviation sector alone has contributed a total of 49.4 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide emission in 2016. To reduce this harmful emission, the performance of the aircraft engine needs to be improved. In conjunction with this realization, having a heat recovery system using heat exchangers in the engine will not only help to improve the performance of the engine but also reduce the temperature of the exhaust gases that will be eliminated as waste heat into the atmosphere. The primary objective of introducing the intercoolers and recuperators is to reduce thrust specific fuel consumption while increasing thrust and reducing emissions. This research focuses on the analysis of intercooling and recuperation within the aspects of thermodynamics to be integrated into a typical turbofan engine. The analysis is conducted via a process simulation software – Aspen Plus V11. The goals of this study are to determine whether compression work will be reduced and studying the increase of engine performance with positioning of heat exchangers. Based on the analysis results, it has been shown that there is a reduction in compression work for the recuperated engine by 7.64% while there is a 13.73% increase in compression work for the intercooled engine. Furthermore, it is also found that the propulsive efficiency is increased in the recuperated cycle by 48.06% while it is reduced for the intercooled cycle by 32.03%.

Correlation Analysis Between Passengers' Anthropometry and Seat Tray Table Height for In-Flight Activity Comfort

Vikneswaran Devandran — 2023-07-31

During flight, passengers’ comfort can be linked to their self-state, cabin design environment and also their in-flight activities. It is noted that the common passengers’ in-flight activities while seated such as eating, writing and using a laptop greatly involve the use of seat tray table. Consequently, from design ergonomics point of view, it is crucial for the seat tray table to be of appropriate height to enable the passengers to use it with comfortable sitting posture. However, due to the different anthropometry measurements, different passengers may require different tray table height to comfortably conduct their in-flight activities. In line with this notion, an experiment is conducted using an aircraft cabin mock-up that is located at Aerospace Design Simulation Laboratory, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia. For this experiment, 38 participants were asked to sit inside the cabin mock-up and conduct two common in-flight seated activities: eating and using a laptop, which involves the use of the seat tray table. The height of seat tray table is adjusted until the participants felt adequately comfortable to perform each activity. The collected data is later analyzed using statistical software package, MINITAB. On the whole, based on the findings from statistical correlation analysis, it can be concluded that the comfortable seat tray table height for both in-flight activities is correlated with the passengers’ anthropometric measurements. The top associated sitting anthropometric measurements for the eating activity are found to be crown buttock height, buttock knee length, eye height, elbow height and shoulder height. On the other hand, for using a laptop, the top parameters are forward grip reach, abdominal depth, crown buttock height, buttock heel length and popliteal height. Based on this finding, these anthropometry parameters should be taken into consideration while designing the seat tray table, especially in deciding its proper height.

Prediction of Take-off and Landing Performance for A Channel-Wing Aircraft using Lifting-Line Theory

Shada Al-Haj — 2023-07-31

Active circulation flow control channel-wing concept for short-take-off and landing (STOL) aircraft has attracted the curiosity of many researchers. Redesigning the wing into a half-circular shape and adding a high-speed rotating propeller blade at the wing trailing edge will produce a suction effect, which gets more air to the wing’s interior and raises pressure differences on the wing. This subsequently enhances the generation of lift force. This study aims to estimate the take-off and landing performance of a channel-wing aircraft. Prandtl lifting-line theory is applied to model and compute lift distribution over the three-dimensional wing section, which is then used to estimate the channel-wing aircraft's take-off and landing performance. On the whole, based on the obtained results, the lift distribution on the wingspan is found to be significant on the U-shape channel-wing section. Furthermore, compared with similar conventional aircraft designs, the total take-off and landing distances of a channel-wing aircraft has been shown to be possibly reduced by more than half and one-third, respectively. This is taken to demonstrate that the channel-wing aircraft is suited for operation at short or limited runways because of its capability to produce high lift force, allowing for short take-off and landing.

An Overview of Governing Equations for Longitudinal Stability of WIG Craft

Nurul Hani Syafiqah Rossani — 2023-07-31

Wing-in-Ground (WIG) craft is a highly promising vehicle for the new future transportation mode due to its potential for increased speed. At the moment however, despite its rapid development, stability remains a major issue for the WIG craft. The variation of aerodynamic characteristics of WIG craft with different angles of attack and the changing ground effects with flying altitudes will shift the aerodynamic center along the chord line. This situation can further lead to performance risks and cause many unfortunate accidents. To address this issue, it is important to have proper understanding of the longitudinal stability and ground effect phenomenon for WIG craft. In conjunction to this, this paper provides an overview of background knowledge and essential governing relationships that are required to conduct longitudinal stability analysis for a WIG craft.

Design, Build and Fly: UiTM’s Radio-Controlled Flying Wing

Zurriati Mohd Ali — 2023-07-31

This paper documents the steps taken in the design, build and fly project of a radio-controlled (RC) flying wing aircraft. It covers the basic concept of the RC flying wing and its mission specification, preliminary design, detailed design and also performance analysis. ANSYS Fluent software is used for visualizing the flow around the chosen airfoil for the flying wing and the detailed drawing of the final design is constructed using SOLIDWORKS software. Once the prototype of the RC flying wing design is fabricated, a flight test is done to record and document its performance data including range, ceiling height, endurance and also cruise speed.

Flight Stability Analysis and Pitch Attitude Control of A Blended-Wing-Body Glider

Syed Asif Uz Zaman — 2023-07-31

In short, a blended-wing-body (BWB) glider is essentially a fixed-wing glider with no dividing line between its wings and main body. This means that the aircraft’s wing and body are blended together and ZETA FX-79 is such a BWB tailless glider. The BWB configuration enables the glider to produce higher lift force to keep it aloft in the air for longer period of time. Nonetheless, its configuration also makes it critical to understand its aerodynamics and stability performance in order to design a controller for a stable and safe flight. In this study, aerodynamics and stability analyses for Zeta FX-79 glider are conducted and presented. The aerodynamic analysis is performed using XFLR5 software whereas the stability analysis is simulated using MATLAB. The obtained results are then referenced to design a pitch attitude controller for the glider.

Determination of Aerodynamic and Flight Performance Characteristics of WIG Craft: A Review

Aina Syafiqah Abdul Baki — 2023-07-31

This paper is focused on discussing available methods for determination of aerodynamic and flight performance characteristics of a wing-in-ground (WIG) craft. The WIG craft, or also known as ekranoplane, is a unique type of vehicle that operates close to the surface of water using the aerodynamic lift generated by its wings. The review presented in this paper covers the overview on current research state of the WIG craft including its history, design principles and also performance parameters. It also discusses the various methods used to evaluate the aerodynamic and flight performance characteristics of a WIG craft such as wind tunnel testing, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations and flight testing. The advantages and limitations of each method are explained, as well as challenges associated with accurate prediction of aerodynamic and flight performance characteristics of WIG craft. This study concludes with summary of key findings and future directions for research on WIG craft aerodynamics and flight performance characteristics, unique challenges and opportunities presented by the WIG craft and also the need for continued research to fully understand their capabilities and potential applications.

An Overview of Civil Aviation Accidents and Risk Analysis

Xirui Li — 2023-07-31

Civil aviation safety has always been a prominent issue of general concern to the society. The causes of modern civil aviation accidents have become increasingly complex and diverse, which pose several new challenges to the study of aviation accidents and risks. This paper reviews the general civil aviation risk researches over the past 30 years, especially in the last 10 years, with the goal of providing research ideas for the evolution and innovation of the civil aviation risk analysis methods. Based on the CAST/ICAO Common Classification Team (CICTT) statistics, three main categories with the highest number of fatalities in civil aviation accidents are identified and selected as the main focus in this study: aircraft loss-of-control, controlled flight into terrain and runway excursion. The relevant research results for each of these types of accident are retrieved from literatures, outlining the process of applying the risk analysis to these accident types. Overall, in line with the progressing interest towards big-data-based risk analysis, both concerns about human factors and also confidence in future application and results of artificial intelligent (AI) technology in the civil aviation risk analysis on the large scale are highlighted. This paper concludes with discussion on the significance of building a risk management framework for deep learning models, which is crucial for the validity and credibility of the risk analysis.