EASN latest news
Article Type: EASN latest news From: International Journal of Structural Integrity, Volume 2, Issue 4
EASN workshopsJTI workshop in Warsaw, Poland
Joint Technology Initiative (JTI) Clean Sky, in cooperation with EASN and Warsaw University of Technology is organising a 2-day event in Warsaw, Poland,aimed at presenting the current results of JTI and informing the participants about the ways and opportunities to get involved in the Clean Sky initiative in view of the JTI tenth call for proposals. Participants from Eastern Europe will also have the opportunity to present their technical capabilities and background related to JTI (Figure 1).
The event will take place on 12 and 13 September at the Warsaw University of Technology.
Clean Sky is the most ambitious aeronautical research programme ever launched in Europe. Its mission is to develop breakthrough technologies to significantly increase the environmental performances of airplanes and air transport,resulting in less noisy and more fuel efficient aircraft, hence bringing a key contribution in achieving the Single European Sky environmental objectives.
The Clean Sky JTI was born in 2008 and represents a unique Public-Private Partnership between the European Commission and the industry. It is managed by the Clean Sky Joint Undertaking until 31 December 2017. The total budget of JTI is euro 1.6 billion, contributed to on a 50/50 basis by the commission (in cash)and the aeronautical industry (in-kind contribution). So far, 24 countries have been involved with 377 winners selected in two years and funding rates up to 75 per cent.
Updated information about the event is available on the EASN web site: www.easn.net/workshops/4/16/
Civilian applications of UAS
On 9-10 November, Politecnico di Torino, Alenia Aeronautica and EASN are organising a workshop aimed at discussing the different civilian applications of UAS and the associated technological challenges. The workshop will be held at Politecnico di Torino.
As a matter of fact, UAS related research activities have reached a high level of maturity and their upcoming integration into national aerospace is even more approaching.
Although military applications of UAS have dominated in the past years, a significant portion of future applications will be addressed to civilian and public domains.
Presently, UAS are being used for environment surveillance and protection and climate monitoring.
Challenges to be overcome include procedures and regulations, airworthiness and certification issues, standardization and operational constrains, safety and risk analysis as well as technology challenges as, among others, communications,payloads see and avoid systems, robust and fault-tolerant flight control systems, level of autonomy, swarms systems (manned and unmanned).
The workshop is the occasion to bring together experiences developed in different European countries on UAS for civilian applications.
More information about the workshop is available on the EASN web site www.easn.net/workshops/1/17/
Interview of EC officers regarding Level 0 projects
EC officers Remy Denos and Dietrich Knoerzer offered an interview to EASN,aiming to inform about the new instrument to be introduced in the 2012 call for proposals, namely the Level 0 projects.
Q. The EC has announced a new instrument for the 5th FP7 call, namely the Level 0 projects, which are expected to cover the “Pioneering the air transport of the future” Activity. What are the main differences between the well known Level 1 and the new Level 0 projects?
A. Level 0 topics are located upstream of Level 1 in the technology readiness levels. It comprises the research and development of highly innovative and breakthrough technologies and concepts, which need a first maturation before they can be developed at larger scale, within larger consortia and larger financial resources (for example in a Level 1 project).
In order to provide more agility and flexibility to the process, this will be implemented by means of a specific open call for proposals. In the call text,recommendations are made for a limitation of the number of partners (up to seven), a short duration (24 months) and an adapted budget with an EU contribution limited to euro 600,000, i.e. the proposed project should be much more compact in all aspects than a typical Level 1 project. Also, page limitations are prescribed in the call for the proposal.
Q. Level 1 projects cover research and technology development activities that span from basic research to the validation of concepts at component or sub-system level. Which is the gap aiming to be filled with the Level 0 projects?
A. In many cases, Level 1 projects are performing applied research; that means they take technologies and concepts that are already existing and mature them. Level 0 projects call for breakthrough and innovative technologies and concepts for a first maturation (the principles could be existing in other domains, but then it would be the first time that this would be applied in the field of aeronautics and air transport). So we are at the source of the process.
Q. In which ways is it expected that this new instrument will facilitate pioneering and innovative upstream research?
First, it is a separate call from the main call for proposals for Levels 1 and 2. So these proposals, which require some specific attention, will not compete with the larger Level 1 proposals. Innovative upstream research and pioneering aspects are two of the conditions to satisfy for a proposal to be in scope. Level 0 is seeking to provide the needed level of flexibility that one may not always find in larger Level 1 project, where the large number of partners calls for a strong organizational frame.
Q. There is often a doubt whether new technologies may be considered as breakthrough or not. In your opinion, is a clear distinction possible? What are the consequences if a proposal is submitted as Level 0 but is not considered by the reviewers as being breakthrough?
It is indeed to the proposers to demonstrate to the evaluators the novelty of the proposed technology or concept or possibly to the radical new approach to the proof of concept that will give new chances compared to previous attempts. Also, the pioneering aspect must be taken into account, i.e. we are looking for applications in the second half of this century. If the proposed technology and concept is well known from the community with possible applications in 20-30 years, then the proposal is likely to perform poorly when evaluators are asked to evaluate the relevance to the Level 0 topic.
Q. What is expected to be the contribution of the European Academia to Level 0 research?
Academia and research centres are often the places where such innovative ideas and concepts emerge; so these communities have certainly an important role to play in Level 0 research.
EASN endorsed projects: latest achievements
After the first six months, the application scenarios of prime importance for the aircraft manufacturers have been defined. A first comprehensive set of samples has been produced with defined contaminations/defects according to the application scenarios and characterized by reference methods. The samples are now being investigated by almost 20 different non-destructive testing methods in order to evaluate their general suitability to detect specific contaminations/defects. First results have shown the potential of the methods as well as some limitations and the need for adaptation of the different NDT techniques to the specific measurement tasks (for more information see www.encomb.eu; Figure 2).
The INMA project aims to develop innovative manufacturing techniques to fabricate complex Ti sheet aerocomponents. These techniques will be based on the use of asymmetric incremental sheet forming (AISF), lean heating concepts and knowledge-based (KB) techniques. The project was launched in September 2010 and it is coordinated by Tecnalia (www.tecnalia.com). Up to date, three study cases have been defined (2 for aircraft, 1 for engine applications) for the development of AISF of Ti. These study cases will also support FE modeling activities. In parallel, a couple of lean heating methods for hot AISF sheet forming and a KB process model to avoid the use of support die are being implemented (for more information, visit the project web site: www.inmaproject.eu;Figure 3).
Michael P. Papadopoulos and Spiros G. PantelakisUniversity of Patras, Patras, Greece
