Goals

The objectives that PADI intends to pursue are in line with the needs of the industry and the main statements of the National and European Research Programs such PRORA, H2020 Clean Sky 2, ESA/ASI:

Structural weight reduction,
Safety improvement,
Cost reduction,
Design and Certification lead time reduction.

The reduction of structural weight is pursued with new design and analysis techniques that tend reducing the typical conservativism used in the aerospace field. In addition, weight reduction is pursued trough the generation of new structural geometries by means of topological optimization techniques. For composite structures, PADI is developing a strategy to assume smaller damage occurrence during operational life than the current standards (Barely Visible Impact Damage, BVID). In the same way, CIRA intends reducing the conservatism due to the high level of moisture provided by the today rules, through appropriate use of devices installed on board. It is also exploring the overcoming of the paradigm of engineering structural design based on the hypothesis of linearity and stationary (aeronautical state-of-art), applying non-linear and time-dependent approaches that allow both "fast" analysis and less conservative identification of structural failure. The projects PRORA/SMAF (Smart Airframe) and DAC/FUSIMCO (development of metal-composite fuselage) are in line with the weight reduction goal. The project H2020 LITE want already achieve this objective with a global strategy of less conservative design and load alleviation approaches. Project CS2/ANGELA aims to develop and test a new class of low-weight landing gear systems on the new LifeRcraft flying platform developed by Airbus Helicopters. The ESA/INTERSTADIO project is focused on the development of a new type of low-weight structures (grid structures) for use in the VEGA class launcher. The determination of loads and aeroelastic instabilities are part of the background of the discipline. Such skills are used for the studies of both the A/Cs and re-entry spacecraft systems. In project ESA/HEXAFLY (development and flight-testing of a hypersonic aircraft), PADI is evaluating the Loads in the critical points of the flight envelope. In addition the dynamic properties of the vehicle are been evaluated.

Passive and active safety is as pertaining between the streams developed in research projects in collaboration with Leonardo Aircraft Division and Clean Sky 2. In particular, efforts have set ourselves the goal to develop design and analysis methodologies (theoretical and numerical) able to identify the behaviour of large aero-structures during crash events. This has resulted in the wide use of explicit time-dependent FEA that require the characterization of the material till the point of collapse (true stress-strain curves) and in conditions of strain rate. Project DAC/CERVIA represents a real laboratory of analytical methods development for the study of Large Composite Aeronautical Structures under the action of impact loads. In addition in CERVIA is foreseen the test engineering and test execution of the Drop Test of a significant portion of the composite fuselage (scale 1:1). On the same research stream it is positioned the project DAC/MACADI studying the performance of new types of composite structures sub-floor of a regional aircraft. Projects Clean Sky 2 Starbet and Defender plan the development of a new class of fuel tanks crash-resistant and self-healing.

The development of virtual allowable and virtual testing techniques aims at reducing the cost and lead-time of the design. CIRA is equipped with the suitable tools and know-how in order to reduce the classical experimental approach based on building block (for composite materials) in order to "jump" some "lines "of the test pyramid, obtaining a considerable advantages both in terms of time and cost. Moreover, these "virtual" techniques are often the only way to derive characteristics of the material to begin the design loop when no experimental reference data are available. The case is the design of structures to be manufactured with new materials and new manufacturing techniques. Further, in this research area CIRA is engaged in the re-design of parts of the general aviation aircraft for use of manufacturing techniques that allow the costs and lead-time reduction. In CS2/SAT-AM project it will re-design the cockpit of the PZL M28 aircraft. The use of innovative manufacturing technologies has given rise to the need to develop new targeted design approach to optimize (in terms of cost and weight) the use of such technologies. Within the project TIMA/RITAM (development of innovative aircraft engine), CIRA develops structural optimization methods using the logic of additive layer manufacturing (ALM). The safety aspects are always taken into account and all activities are framed, in advance, within the airworthiness regulations (FAR, CS) and reference space books (ECSS).

Research topics

Modelling;
Topological optimization;
Aeroelasticity;
Flight loads and ground loads;
Structural dynamics (free-vibration, shock spectrum, random vibration, transient analysis)
Design according to Airworthiness Regulation and ECSS standards;
Progressive failure analysis;
Fracture mechanics;
Crash analysis;
Less conservative design approach;
Virtual allowable and testing;
Low weight structures & mechanisms;
Crash resistant structures & mechanisms and systems.

IRON - Innovative turbopROp configuratioN

LED - Long Endurance Demonstrator

SHAFT - SyntHetic jet Actuators for Flow conTrol

FTB4UAS Flight Test Bed For UAS

SIMACE - System for monitoring of environmental conditions in hostile conditions

SMAF – Smart AirFrame

AIRGREEN 2 - Morphing Wing Technology

CAPRI Carrello per Atterraggio con Attuazione Intelligente

CERVIA - Innovative methods for Design and Certification of advanced aircraft composite structures

GAINS - Green AIrframe Icing Novel System

AIRONE - Cheap Online Weather Information Service for the Personal Air Vehicles sector

CTNA TILTROTOR FX

MISE - Applications for electronics of not piloted aircraft

CASTLE - CAbin Systems design Toward passenger welLbEing

COAST - COst-effective Avionic SysTem

DANTE - Development of Aero-vibro-acoustics Numerical and Technical Expertise

FLPP3-DOC Demise Observation Capsule

HEXAFLY-INT - High-Speed Experimental Fly Vehicles-International

INTERSTADIO GRID - The Interstage 2/3 of the new European launcher, VEGA C

ISAA – Imaging antenna System based on Aperiodic feeding Arrays

LIPROM – Liquid Propulsion Research on Oxygen Methane

ASCI - Safety-critical interoperability applications amongst autonomous heterogeneous systems

BIG DATA FACILITY

MIDA - Photo-interpretation with high resolution optical satellite images

CAPPADOCIA - Coordination Action Pro “Production, Avionics, Design” on Cost-efficiency in Aeronautics

Activities