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This paper presents the new Hydrogen Fire-safe Airship system that overcomes the limitations present in previous airships designs of that kind, when considering their functioning at advanced operative position. Hydrogen is considered to be more effective than helium because of its low-cost production by hydrolysis, which process is nicely driven only by the photovoltaic energy. This paper presents a novel architectural concept of the buoyant balloon designed to increase the fire related safety, when applying hydrogen as the buoyant gas. The proposed buoyant volume is designed as a multi-balloon structure with a naturally ventilated shape, to ensure that hydrogen cannot reach the dangerous concentration level in the central airship balloon. This concept is expected to be the start of a novel hydrogen airship type, to be much safer than preceding ones.

The flapping flight is advantageous for its superior maneuverability and much more aerodynamically efficiency for the small size UAV when compared to the conventional steady-state aerodynamics solution. Especially, it is appropriate for the Micro-air-vehicle (MAV) propulsion system, where the flapping wings can generate the required thrust. This paper investigated such solution, based on the piezoelectric patches, which are attached to the flexible plates, in combination with an appropriate amplification mechanisms. The numerical and experimental flow analyses have been carried out for the piezoelectric flapping plate, in order to characterize the fluid structure interaction induced by the swinging movement of the oscillating plate.

In the general framework of the EU FP7 MAAT project, a novel green air transport architecture is under development. The paper presents the possible architectures for the cabin connections and the transfer modalities for people, crew and freight, for to the European project MAAT. Different architectures have been evaluated setting out to cover the structural and propulsive needs and to enable the transport modes between the Cruiser and the Feeders. The different possibilities are discussed conceptually, by considering the advantages and disadvantages of the presented configurations. The bases for future detailed design and research are established, as through such conceptual study the main parameters are identified and found to affect the general design of both airships and their operability. The aim of this paper is to specify the necessary elements, which are necessary to perform the docking operation by taking into account the prescribed Feeder-Cruiser geometries.

The paper presents an integrated software tool for the hydroplaning simulation based on a weak coupled fluid-structure interaction model. The integrated modules are a flow solver FINE™/Hexa designed to solve the complex two-phase flow surrounding the tire numerically, based on unstructured hexahedral grids, the FEM solver MSC.Marc/MSC.Mentat which predicts the transients of the tire's structure, a coupling module for efficient and accurate transfer of the essential variables between the flow and FEM solvers and a deformation module which handles the CFD unstructured mesh to match the external surface of the tire. The accuracy of each module and the robustness of the integrated software are validated by the computational results obtained for rigid and deformable tires over a large range of speeds.

In order to optimise the vibro-acoustic behaviour of panel-like structures in a more systematic way, accurate structural models are needed. However, at the frequencies of relevance to the vibro-acoustic problem, the mode shapes are very complex, requiring a high spatial resolution in the measurement procedure. The large number of required transducers and their mass loading effects limit the applicability of accelerometer testing. In recent years, optical measuring methods have been proposed. Direct electronic (ESPI) imaging, using strobed continuous laser illumination, or more recently, pulsed laser illumination, have lately created the possibility to bring the holographic testing approach to the level of industrial applicability for modal analysis procedures. The present paper discusses the various critical elements of a holographic ESPI modal testing system.

This paper presents a high-fidelity electro-thermal model of a half-bridge that consists of IGBTs and anti-parallel diodes. The model calculates and estimates the half-bridge voltages, currents, switching and conduction losses considering the operating temperature and current conditions. Moreover, this model is suitable for varying switching frequency operation. The electro-thermal model can be used as an evaluation tool to analyze the performance of control strategies for traction inverter from efficiency, temperature and component stress point of view. In this paper performance of Direct Torque Model Predictive Control (DTMPC) of an Interior Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor (IPMSM) is evaluated in comparison with Indirect Field Oriented Control (IFOC) with sinusoidal pulse width modulation (PWM). The inverter model and the MPC are both implemented in C-Mex for rapid execution.

E-mobility is a game changer for the automotive domain. It promises significant reduction in terms of complexity and in terms of local emissions. With falling prices and recent technological advances, the second generation of electric vehicles (EVs) that is now in production makes electromobility an affordable and viable option for more and more transport mission (people, freight). Still, major challenges for large scale deployment remain. They include higher maturity with respect to performance (e.g., range, interaction with the grid), development efficiency (e.g., time-to-market), or production costs. Additionally, an important market transformation currently occurs with the co-development of automated driving functions, connectivity, mobility-as-a-service. New opportunities arise to customize road transportation systems toward application-driven, user-centric smart mobility solutions.