Gust Alleviation Methods for Next-Generation Air Vehicles 

In my research, I am exploring new potential Gust Load Alleviation (GLA) strategies with feedback control for next-generation commercial aircraft within the COMAC - Imperial Research Centre for Wing Technology of Commercial Aircraft. So far GLA has been defined as an aeroelastic problem, but my work will seek a more wholistic view of the aircraft dynamics. The computational methods used are based on the open-source aeroelastic simulation environment SHARPy, which is currently being developed in my research lab. SHARPy couples unsteady aerodynamics based on potential flow theory with flexible-multibody vehicle dynamics to predict vehicle response. This coupling is essential to accurately capture flight dynamic and rigid-body effects, as a considerable proportion of the external work on the vehicle generated by the gust is converted into kinetic rigid body energy. 

The objective is to expand SHARPy’s capabilities to produce a comprehensive mathematical representation and associated computational aeroservoelastic models for the design of GLA systems on next-generation commercial transport aircraft.

 

 

Education 

  • 2017-2020: MSc Aerospace Engineering (with honours). Technical University of Braunschweig.
  • 2017-2018: MSc Aerospace Engineering (Exchange year). Purdue University. 
  • 2013-2017: BSc Mechanical Engineering (1st Class). Technical University of Braunschweig. 

Awards

Work Experience

  • April 2019  September 2019: Intern in Corporate Innovation Management at Lufthansa Technik AG.

 

Contact us

Prof Rafael Palacios

Room 338, City & Guilds Building
South Kensington Campus
Imperial College, London SW7 2AZ

Email: r.palacios@imperial.ac.uk

Tel: +44 (0)20 7594 5075