No-Emission Wireless Electrical Rotorcraft Autonomous Systems (NEW-ERAS)

新时代是一个促进项目，它探索通过在旋翼飞行器上部署本地和自主振动能量收集器、能量储存和电力管理设备来分散电源的概念。在起飞、巡航和着陆飞行过程中，机身包括转子中有大量和不需要的机械能量，这是由于气流、发动机操作和机动通常激发的振动。根据热力学的观点，振动是创造升力、克服阻力和飞行所需的总能量的一种丰富和降级的形式，但尚未得到利用。利用新的“智能”结构技术结合无线通信和电力连接来获取这种能源，可以成为解决与实施新的和广泛的结构健康监测和驱动系统相关的后勤问题的常见解决方案，这些系统旨在减少未来飞机和旋翼机的燃料消耗和负载。之所以如此，是因为所有这些系统都是电力驱动的。通过在当地部署基于能量收集的发电机，从能源(发动机)到传感器/执行器的大量布线/连接设备所伴随的机身死重量将降至最低。这种重量的节省也略微有助于降低燃料消耗。虽然设想的通过结构振动产生能量的方法可能适用于飞机、旋翼机和风力涡轮机，但由于申请者、他的团队及其在卡尔顿大学的独特专用实验室设施的背景，新时代将专注于旋翼机。 新时代的重点是旋翼机的动力产生，特别是主旋翼，它被认为是旋翼机高频强迫气动弹性振动的最重要来源。此外，NEW-ERATES将首次调查由申请者和共同发明人在加拿大开发的独特的“智能弹簧”，作为一种低频发电机设备，收集叶片超前滞后运动中可用的大量能量，否则这些能量将被阻尼器耗散，以避免转子不稳定。 总而言之，新时代要解决的问题是，在典型的飞行过程中，直升机转子中不受欢迎的机械振动实际上可以产生、储存和回收多少电能？然后，根据可用功率，研究几个能够有效利用这种功率的辅助(传感器和执行器)系统演示。能量收集发电机、电源管理和能量存储系统将与示范辅助系统集成，以组成电气低功率自主系统。这些系统的缩小规模的原型将被设计、制造，然后在实验室控制的实验中进行测试，以回答这个问题。

NEW-ERAS is an enabling project that explores the concept of decentralizing the electrical power source by deploying local and autonomous vibration energy harvesters, energy storage and power management devices in rotorcraft. There is plentiful and unwanted amount of mechanical energy available in the airframe including the rotor due to vibrations normally excited by the airflow, engine operation and maneuvers during the takeoff, cruise and landing flight regimes. Under the thermodynamic point of view, vibration is an abundant and downgraded form of the total energy that is required to create lift, overcome drag and fly but has not yet been utilized. Harvesting this energy using new “smart” structures techniques in combination with wireless communication and power links can become a common solution to logistic problems associated with the implementation of new and extensive structural health monitoring and actuation systems that aim fuel consumption reduction and loads alleviation in future aircraft and rotorcraft. This is the case because all these systems are electrically powered. By having locally deployed electric power generators based on energy harvesting, dead airframe weight accompanying extensive cabling / connection devices running from the energy source (engine) to the sensor / actuator will be minimized. This saving in weight also marginally contributes to reduce fuel consumption. Although the envisioned approach for energy generation from structural vibrations may be applied to both aircraft and rotorcraft and wind turbines, NEW-ERAS will be focused on rotorcraft due to the background of the applicant, his team and their unique dedicated laboratory facilities at Carleton University. NEW-ERAS is focused on the generation of power for rotorcraft, especially from the main rotor, which is recognized be the most important source of high-frequency forced aeroelastic vibration in rotorcraft. In addition, NEW-ERAS will investigate for the first time the use of the unique "smart-spring," developed by the applicant and co-inventors in Canada, as a low-frequency generator device to harvest the substantial energy available in the blades lead-lag motion that is otherwise dissipated by dampers to avoid rotor instability. In summary, the question to be addressed by NEW-ERAS is how much electrical power can be practically generated, stored and recycled from the undesired mechanical vibrations in helicopter rotors during typical flight? Then, based on the available power, a few ancillary (sensor and actuator) system demonstrators that could effectively make use of this power will be investigated. The energy harvesting generators, power management and energy storage systems will be integrated with the exemplary ancillary systems to compose electrically low-power autonomous systems. Reduced-scale prototypes of these systems will be designed, fabricated then tested in laboratory-controlled experiments to answer the question.