117 research outputs found
Il Diavolo Bianco. Saggio introduttivo, traduzione e note di Mariaelisa Dimino
No full textIl Duca di Bracciano ama Vittoria, ma entrambi sono già sposati; Flaminio è disposto a tutto pur di uscire dalla povertà; il Granduca di Firenze progetta un piano sanguinario per vendicare l’assassinio di sua sorella... In una commistione di tragedia e commedia, amore e vendetta, i destini dei personaggi restano fatalmente impigliati nella trama sottile degli intrighi dei potenti.
In questo dramma senza eroi, ambientato nell’Italia del Rinascimento, il vero protagonista è la corte: un mondo pericoloso, in cui la religione e la legge sono inghiottite dalla profonda oscurità nascosta dietro lo scintillio della ricchezza. Il diavolo bianco mette in scena una società in cui l’unica certezza è che niente è mai veramente come appare
On the experimental characterization of morphing structures
No full textA major difficulty in the design of morphing devices for aircraft wings is to reach an adequate compromise between high load-carrying capacity to withstand aerodynamic loads and sufficient flexibility to achieve better aerodynamic performance. Such counteracting and demanding targets lead to an increased structural complexity whose experimental characterization is a matter of high priority prior to the ultimate physical integration into the aircraft structure. Compared to the passive counterpart, morphing devices enable augmented capabilities by locally adapting wing shape and lift distribution through either a quasistatic or dynamic deflection, with excursions ranging into a few units of degrees, positive and negative.This chapter provides an overview of the verification approaches suitable for morphing devices ranging from the basic concepts applicable to individual subsystems up to the global experimental analysis of the integrated system. A number of test objectives are illustrated at both component and system level, providing practical tips for the experimental analysis of morphing structures combining both compliant structural systems and multibox self-contained actuation mechanisms
An Adaptive Trailing Edge
No full textAircraft wings are usually optimized for a specific design point. However, since they operate in a wide variety of flight regimes, some of these have conflicting impacts on aircraft design, as an aerodynamically efficient configuration in one instance may perform poorly in others.Conventional wing structures preclude any significant adaptation to changing conditions; movable surfaces, such as flaps or slats, lead to limited changes of the overall shape with narrow benefits compared with those that could be obtained from a wing structure that is inherently deformable and adaptable.An adaptive trailing edge concept conceived to enhance wing aerodynamic performance in cruise condition is outlined. The camber of the trailing edge is controlled during flight to compensate the weight reduction following the fuel burning. In this way, the trimmed configuration remains optimal in terms of efficiency (lift to drag ratio) or minimal drag with positive fallouts on aircraft fuel consumption per flight.The main steps concerning the design of the device are reported, with a special focus on each of its relevant architectural elements. In detail, the skin, the structural skeleton, the actuator, sensor, and control systems are dealt with. Some attention is devoted to aspects that are necessary to come to a finalized product of industrial relevance: namely, the aeroelastic and the safety analyses. The former assumes a main relevance because the system has augmented degrees of freedom with respect to a standard layout and then, a more complex dynamic response and a higher risk of instability. The latter is necessary to envisage a future certification process of this kind of device that requires the development of a dedicated path
Scientific Bestiarium: the Living, the Dead and the Normal
No full textMy aim is to analyse scientific literature and its representation of the animal body in relation to the disciplinary institutions of its time, namely zootechnics. I will focus on the nineteenth century as the moment of birth of a specific biological discourse and as the moment of deployment of the Industrial Revolution, which had a significant impact on animal breeding. This conjuncture produces a radical new image of the animal body and of animality in general, which plays an important role not only in science and zootechnics, but also in philosophy and the human sciences. I will frame the evolution of scientific discourses on the animal body from the Greeks to the Modern Age, in order to present their material history in relation to the concrete practices that involved animals in their time. I will finally focus on two of the most important scientific models of the nineteenth century – Pasteurism and Darwinism – as cutting-edge moments in the history of biology, precisely due to their innovative relation to the zootechnical institution and its related conceptualization of the body
Morphing Aileron
No full textMore severe regulations are growing worldwide due to increasing air traffic in order to reduce fuel consumption and noise. The achievement of challenging targets in terms of pollutant emissions abatement demands for the development of innovative aircraft technologies. Morphing is one of them and plays an extraordinary role for the improvement of aircraft performance. Many research projects are currently focused on morphing both in US and Europe. Among these, the CRIAQ-MDO505 constitute the first trans-European cooperation project on smart technologies. Its aim is to investigate morphing structures potential through the design and manufacturing of a full-scale variable camber aileron designed according to the requirements of a regional aircraft. This project was carried out by Italian and Canadian academies, research centers, and leading industries. In this framework, the authors worked on the development of this technology addressing both numerical and experimental activities up to a thorough validation of a physical prototype. The effective capabilities of the adaptive prototype were proven by means of wind tunnel and ground test campaigns which successfully demonstrated the feasibility and the reliability of a morphing aileron
Ground Vibration Test and Aeroelastic Analyses of the CIRA Unmanned Space Vehicle
No full textThis paper deals with the numerical and experimental activities performed by CIRA for the Aeroelastic flutter predictions and the numerical structural model validation of the CIRA Unmanned Space Vehicle in the first phase of the Dropped Transonic Test campaign. Starting from the FE model, the numerical results have been used in order to plan the test strategy and to find the optimal location for sensors and shakers, allowing the optimal control and observation of the structural modes in the frequency range of interest. A dedicated suspension system has been designed and realized in order to achieve the test article free free boundary conditions. The Ground Vibration test has been carried out in order to characterize the experimental dynamic model of the vehicle by using both the Phase Resonance (Normal Mode) and the Phase Separation techniques. A correlation analysis between the experimental modal data and the numerical results has been performed. The aeroelastic model has been updated on the basis of experimental FRFs and modal parameters, by minimizing the discrepancies between the FE model predictions and experimental data. Finally the validated numerical model has been used to investigate the aeroelastic phenomena. The interactions of elastic, inertial and aerodynamic forces have been predicted and the flutter speeds have been calculated
SARISTU: Adaptive Trailing Edge Device (ATED) design process review
No full textSARISTU was a big cooperation project granted by the European Commission, 7th Framework Programme, carried out between 2011 and 2015. It dealt with smart aeronautic structures, both morphing and sensored; its main target was to demonstrate the feasibility of designing, manufacturing and operating in representative environment, instrumented structures. Till now, it represents the major effort carried out within the European Union on the development of adaptive architectures for air systems. Inside that big activity, the realization of an Adaptive Trailing Edge Device (ATED) for wing camber adaptations aimed at compensating the weight reduction following the fuel consumption during cruise was addressed. It made the core of investigations target variable geometry aircraft components together with two other analyses concerning the development of shape-changing winglet and droop nose. ATED activities were conducted by the Italian Aerospace Research Centre (CIRA) in tight cooperation with the University of Napoli, “Federico II”, who coordinated a group of 12 different partners from 8 different nations (France, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Israel, Spain, Turkey, and Italy). In this paper, an integral synthesis of that work is reported, with a focus on the definition and realization of the components of the presented device. The publication is in fact meant as the first part of a series that is aimed at overviewing the whole adaptive trailing edge development, till wind tunnel tests execution. Such a concise report is a critical and harmonized review of what have been performed by many colleagues spread all over Europe, all of which are duly recalled in the reported bibliography where the reader may access more detailed information and descriptions. In detail, the paper starts with a general introduction of the concept and its aims, to move to the specs definition immediately after. Then, it deals with a short but comprehensive description of the main ATED components: structural skeleton, skin, actuation and sensing systems. It is worth remarking that the paragraph dedicated to the body frame includes some discussion about aeroelastic assessment and manufacture, seen as complementation for a complete assessment of the design constraints
Stress analysis of a morphing system
No full textMorphing structures have the greatest potential to dramatically improve aircraft aerodynamic performance. They are designed to accomplish with a single device what conventional mechanisms can do with major aerodynamic penalties. In doing so, such systems have to be flexible enough to deliver the desired motion while ensuring a certain structural response under operative loads.In this chapter, focus is given to the structural design of morphing structures. The objective is to develop a generalized scheme, spanning from stress analysis to material selection, to design morphing devices that can morph one shape to another with minimum error. After a brief introduction, general design guidelines and practical tips are provided to ensure satisfactory mechanical structural performance and durability, with an overview of subcomponents and systems validation, design loads and simulation constraints. The application of this approach is demonstrated through an adaptive trailing edge device design example, including FE modeling, simulations and results assessment
Safety and Reliability Aspects of an Adaptive Trailing Edge Device (ATED)
No full textIn morphing structures, actuation is a key system for general aircraft-level functions. Similarly to the demonstration of safety compliance applied to aircraft control surfaces, novel functions resulting from the integration of a morphing device (ATED), imposes a detailed examination of the associated risks. Because of the concept novelty, literature references for a safe design of a morphing trailing edge device are hard to be found. The safety-driven design of ATED requires a thorough examination of the potential hazards resulting from operational faults involving either the actuation chain, such as jamming, or the external interfaces, such as loss of power supplies and control lanes. In this work, a study of ATED functions is qualitatively performed at both subsystem and aircraft levels to identify potential design faults, maintenance and crew faults, as well as external environment risks. The severity of the hazard effects is determined and placed in specific classes, indicative of the maximum tolerable probability of occurrence for a specific event, resulting in safety design objectives. A fault tree is finally produced to evaluate the impact of actuation kinematics on specific aspects of ATED morphing operation and reliability
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