Contact person
Ing. Robert Popela, Ph.D.
popela.r@fme.vutbr.cz
+420 541 143 470
Office: C3a/3.01
Technická 2896/2, 616 69 Brno
Competences
- Conceptual design of aircraft and parts thereof – aerodynamic aircraft design; “general aviation” category, which includes wing design and appropriate wing profile, lift mechanization design, propeller design and application for a particular engine, propulsion system cooling, cockpit ventilation. Parametric modeling in advanced CAD systems.
- Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) – major applications include external and internal aerodynamics, for example:
- calculation of aerodynamic profile characteristics
- aerostatic data for strength-related calculations
- optimization of the whole structures or their parts to minimize given functions
- propeller noise minimization and noise reduction of other parts
- determination of stability derivations
- In development projects we have had so far, we could apply not only standard procedures but also advanced physical models, e.g.:
- moving mesh, moving reference frame
- multi-phase (particle tracking, cavitation, free surface, etc.)
- Free Form Deformation
- direct link to optimization scripts
- Flight mechanics
- analysis of flight performances and wing properties
- flight mission simulation
- dynamic aircraft movement simulation
- interplanetary probe landing maneuver dynamic simulation
- In-flight testing – for an aircraft certification process. Additional tests include CFD validation, aircraft noise emission, etc. The aerodynamic team carries out landing maneuvers tests of interstellar probes in atmospheric conditions – helicopter drop tests, etc. The in-flight testing is conducted in cooperation with Aircraft testing laboratory team.
- Aerodynamic tunnel measurements
- radiator and their assembly testing for automobile and aviation applications
- experiment design and implementation for CFD validation
- calibration and measurement section design for specific conditions
- design of specialized modules for research in wing surface insect contamination, ice accretion, etc.
- Research in advanced methods for flow manipulation – involves mostly various concepts of Active Flow Control
- Optimization – shape optimization of the whole structures and individual parts using advanced methods:
- Design of Experiment
- surrogate modelling (RSM, Kriging, RBF, integration into research group Garteur AG52)
- evolution algorithms
- PDE constrained optimization – ad joint
- Unmanned Aerial Vehicles – development of our own aircraft types, accomplishing their autonomous flight. Perpendicular and oblique photography, on-line video – tele presentation. Processing of the acquired data into ortho-photo images, 3D models and other cartographic products.