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

NEW-ERAS是一个使能项目，通过在旋翼飞机上部署本地和自主振动能量采集器、能量存储和电源管理设备，探索分散电源的概念。由于在起飞、巡航和着陆飞行状态期间通常由气流、发动机操作和机动激发的振动，在包括转子的机身中存在大量的和不想要的机械能。从热力学的角度来看，振动是产生升力、克服阻力和飞行所需的总能量的一种丰富和降级的形式，但尚未被利用。使用新的“智能”结构技术结合无线通信和电力链路来收集这种能量可以成为与新的和广泛的结构健康监测和致动系统的实施相关联的物流问题的常见解决方案，该系统的目标是在未来的飞机和旋翼机中减少燃料消耗和减轻载荷。这是因为所有这些系统都是电动的。通过具有基于能量收集的本地部署的发电机，将最小化伴随从能量源（发动机）延伸到传感器/致动器的大量布线/连接装置的机身自重。这种重量上的节省也略微有助于减少燃料消耗。虽然设想的从结构振动产生能量的方法可以应用于飞机和旋翼机和风力涡轮机，但由于申请人的背景，他的团队及其在卡尔顿大学独特的专用实验室设施，NEW-ERAS将专注于旋翼机。 NEW-ERAS的研究重点是旋翼机的动力产生，特别是主旋翼的动力产生，主旋翼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-ERAS将首次研究使用独特的“智能弹簧”，由加拿大的申请人和共同发明人开发，作为低频发电机设备，以收集叶片超前-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。 总之，NEW-ERAS要解决的问题是，在典型的飞行过程中，从直升机旋翼中不期望的机械振动中实际可以产生、存储和回收多少电力？然后，根据可用的功率，一些辅助（传感器和执行器）系统的示威者，可以有效地利用这种权力将进行调查。能量收集发电机、功率管理和能量存储系统将与示例性辅助系统集成，以组成电力低功率自主系统。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.