Overview
The demand for reduction of the fuel consumption of aircraft leads to new technologies. One of them is reduction of turbulences on wings by manufacturing the surface with high quality. This means with a low waviness and without gaps and steps. During manufacturing of this surfaces an adequate quality control is mandatory. At present no measurement system exists which is capable of measuring large areas with high lateral and depth resolution.
The WiMo-project aimed at the strategy to combine different measurement systems to a single one which allows for measuring large areas with the necessary resolution. In addition, new strategies for handling the huge amount of data and evaluate them were developed. The project result can therefore fulfil the requirements of a quality control in a production line for the natural laminar flow wing.
Funding
Results
Executive Summary:
According to the Air Transport Action Group (ATAG), aviation is responsible for 12% of CO2 emissions from all transport sources and accounts for around 2% of all humanly generated CO2 emissions. As the aviation industry thrives and passenger traffic doubles over the next twenty years, it's incumbent upon the aeronautical community to take responsibility by creating and cultivating powerful technologies that are environmentally benign.
Within the CleanSky programme, SFWA ITD carried out the ‘BLADE’ - Breakthrough Laminar Aircraft Demonstrator in Europe, under management of Airbus. This demonstrator was being developed to build wings for passenger planes that allow a natural laminar flow under cruise conditions. This will help reduce fuel consumption and emissions caused by air travel.
Numerous technological challenges must be overcome to build wings that will comply with the necessary tight aerodynamic tolerances for profile waviness and roughness, required to enable a natural laminar flow. Also, the precision manufacturing and assembly must necessarily be accompanied by high precision metrology on scales from meters to sub-millimetres. At present no measurement system exists which is capable of measuring large areas with high lateral and depth resolution.
The WiMo / WimCAM projects aimed at the development and testing of a strategy to combine different measurement systems to a single one which allows for measuring large areas with the necessary resolution. In addition, new strategies for handling the huge amount of data and evaluate them will be developed. The projects results can therefore fulfil the requirements of a quality control in a production line for the natural laminar flow wing.