Carlota Bonnet’s PhD Thesis Proposal:

Author: Carlota Bonnet

Advisor: Dr. Marilyn J. Smith

Time: Wednesday, Sep. 28th, 2022, 10:30am-12pm

Location: Weber 200

Microsoft Teams meeting link: https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_OTY5ZjdlMzQtNGM0Zi00M2VlLWI1MmItNDYxZTFjZTQ0OGNm%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%22482198bb-ae7b-4b25-8b7a-6d7f32faa083%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%22af0448b1-ec41-4245-99ba-fb5b74e6bb1b%22%7d

Title: "Physics and Modeling of Nonlinear Sharp-Edged Transverse Gust Encounters and Applications to Urban Environments"

Committee:

Prof. Marilyn J. Smith - Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering (advisor)

Prof. Brian J. German - Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering

Prof. Jonnalagadda V. R. Prasad - Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering

Prof. Juergen Rauleder - Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering

Abstract:

The advent of smaller, lighter Urban Air Mobility (UAM) and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) focus on missions that are performed primarily in urban and nap-of-the-earth environments. These vehicles, with slower forward flight speeds and reduced mass ratios flying through large transients, have led to a renewed interest of gusts (discrete turbulence) and their impact on vehicle response. This knowledge is required to ensure both safety and the reduction of noise during operations, in particular during takeoff and landing (terminal operations).

As such, a greater understanding of the flow physics of large canonical wing-gust interactions is required in order to accurately model these physics during vehicle design, especially for manned and autonomous control law development.  This understanding requires the development of physical and computational experiments that accurately capture the details of the flow field so that existing linear models can be expanded or new theories developed.

This proposal will present the development of a computational methodology to model nonlinear sharp-edged transverse gusts and validate the results against experimental data.