Title: High-Aspect Ratio wing – high fidelity Test technologies

Leader: Airbus Deutschland GmbH, Partners: DLR e.V., Münster University of Applied Sciences, ETW GmbH

Under the leadership of Airbus, the partners in HighART will address the task of conducting performance measurements and certification tests for reduced-emission aircraft configurations with wings of significantly increased aspect ratio and elasticity, and preparing the corresponding test techniques. So far, aerodynamic performance has mostly been determined in ETW, where special steels have been used for the models due to the cryogenic conditions. Steel, as an isotropic material, can only partially simulate the lightweight structure of a real wing, so that its deformation characteristics under load, i.e. bending and torsion, cannot easily represent the elastic behaviour of a modern wing at flight. Due to the increase in wing-span and significantly increased efficiency of future concepts, much "softer" more flexible wings will be used. These cannot currently be simulated at scale because currently available prediction methods are inadequate. HighART builds directly on the work in the LuFo V-3 KoMMod project and uses fibre-based materials to tailor the deformation behaviour for obtaining the aerodynamic performance data at optimised bending and twisting. By constructing several model wings having the same shape, each with different stiffness in terms of bending and torsion, it will be possible to determine the aerodynamic performance depending on the shape under load and to interpolate and extrapolate the data among themselves, as well as to validate the predictions. Special attention will be paid to the natural frequencies of the models in order to identify undesirable coupled vibration behaviour in advance and to avoid it if necessary.

HighART includes the modelling and development of two carbon-fibre reinforced plastics (CFRP) models of a High-Aspect Ratio Wing (HARW) with different elastic properties. In addition, the project partners DLR and Münster University of Applied Sciences will further develop surface methods such as TSP and/or PSP (Temperature and/or Pressure Sensitive Paint) for use on CFRP models. The aim is to combine both methods within one measurement campaign.

This work received funding from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy LuFo VI-3/2024-2027 under grant agreement no 20A2202C.

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