NASA STTR 2019-II Solicitation

Proposal Summary

PROPOSAL NUMBER:
 19-2- T15.01-3500
PHASE 1 CONTRACT NUMBER:
 80NSSC19C0539
SUBTOPIC TITLE:
 Distributed Electric Propulsion (DEP) Vehicles toward Urban Air Mobility (UAM) and Regional Airliners
PROPOSAL TITLE:
 Urban Air Mobility (UAM) Terminal Area Ride Quality and Safety Assessment Tool
SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN (SBC):
Continuum Dynamics, Inc.
34 Lexington Avenue
Ewing NJ  08618 - 2302
Phone: (609) 538-0444
RESEARCH INSTITUTION (RI):
Pennsylvania State University
116 West College Avenue, 2nd Floor
PA  16801 - 3838
Phone: (814) 867-0818

Principal Investigator (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)

Name:
Dr. Jeffrey Keller
E-mail:
jeff@continuum-dynamics.com
Address:
34 Lexington Avenue Ewing, NJ 08618 - 2302
Phone:
(609) 538-0444

Business Official (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)

Name:
Ms. Melissa Kinney
E-mail:
melissa@continuum-dynamics.com
Address:
34 Lexington Avenue Ewing, NJ 08618 - 2302
Phone:
(609) 538-0444
Estimated Technology Readiness Level (TRL) :
Begin: 4
End: 6
Technical Abstract (Limit 2000 characters, approximately 200 words)

Dynamic gust encounters are a design factor for Distributed Electric Propulsion (DEP) aircraft operating in Urban Air Mobility (UAM) environments.  Gust response is important for safety of operations and ride qualities, which affect community acceptance.  Notional UAM aircraft configurations differ significantly from conventional helicopters with different gust response characteristics due to aerodynamic interactions between the rotor system, airframe, and environment.  These differences may require alternate flight control strategies.  The proposed effort will develop an assessment tool suite based on variable fidelity modeling for the aircraft response and operating environment including minimum complexity flight dynamics and canonical urban airwake models, in addition to high-fidelity analyses of coupled rotor-airframe and free wake dynamics.  Novel flight control methods will be used to perform gust alleviation and optimize ride qualities that leverage the distributed control nature of UAM vehicle concepts.  The assessment tool suite will be integrated with preliminary design and analysis tools used by NASA and the industry, providing design feedback for handling / ride qualities optimization.  The use of higher fidelity models will permit more accurate assessment of flight controller margins and performance prior to flight test activities.  Minimum complexity models also may be used for vertiport site assessment and flight path / trajectory optimization.

Potential NASA Applications (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words)

The proposed UAM safety / ride quality assessment tool will provide a critical component for analysis of vehicle control requirements and gust rejection in terminal area operations, supporting NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate Strategic Thrust 4 for Safe, Quiet, and Affordable Vertical Lift Air Vehicles.  The technology will allow air vehicles to be developed with handling / ride qualities factored into the design process, which will be critical to community acceptance and more widespread adoption into the UAM transportation system.

Potential Non-NASA Applications (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words)

CDI collaborates with air vehicle developers building components of the UAM transportation system and provides analysis tools that support performance prediction and flight dynamics evaluations. Technology developed here will naturally transition to these end users. CDI also will transition models to UAM traffic management (UTM) applications to support path planning and airspace use optimization.

Duration: 24
Form Generated on 11/24/2020 14:10:45