The VADIS project aims to develop innovative and ground breaking assembly methods and solutions for cost effective wing manufacture for the future regional aircraft based on reverse engineering, intelligent process adaption, and variability aware processes and tooling. The project will develop and implement new digital design and simulation techniques, combined with future highly efficient, informatics rich and quality-driven cost-effective manufacturing solutions which will be rigorously tested and validated to deliver an integrated future wing box assembly cell. VADIS will produce an integrated wing box assembly cell for future regional aircraft, taking advantage of the latest advances in metrology, digital manufacturing and process adaption to achieve part-to-part assembly. A high tolerance deterministic assembly approach will be applied to reduce parasitic drag caused by traditional panel gaps. Reconfigurable assembly tooling will be used to reduce tooling costs allowing the most efficient response and flexibility in design changes. Low energy low cost mould tooling and out of autoclave processing will be exploited to achieve significant cost reduction. Synergies with current developments of fixed wing airframe ITD will be explored to promote best practice based on the existing strong industrial and research expertise in the consortium. The VADIS project will deliver the following target outcomes: Variability analysis and characterization for process and fixture tolerances; Assembly process capability assessment and investigation of feasible tolerance range widening; Technology benchmarking for optimised design of a self-adaptive fixture, metrology system for reverse engineering, cell layout and software for digital twin creation; Achieve ±0.006 mm accurate reverse engineering solution; Adaptively updating digital twin of spar-rib-skin assembly model; Cell process adaption capability to achieve part-to-part assembly.

Flow separation on aircraft wings has been notoriously linked with loss of lift and extra drag. Furthermore, the recent development of larger, more efficient Ultra High Bypass Ratio (UHBR) engines requires slat cut backs at the juncture of the engine pylon, which significantly promotes separation at high angles of attack. WP1.5 of Clean Sky 2 (CS2) Large Passenger Aircraft (LPA) Programme has been dedicated to addressing this very issue by developing active flow control (AFC) strategies. Among the various AFC techniques proposed in the literature, the pulsed jet actuator (PJA) control has been regarded as a particularly promising one as it suppression separation effectively and with much lower mass flow than the continuous blowing actuation. WINGPULSE is specifically designed to unlock the potential of the PJA technique by combining the expertise of UNOTT in wind tunnel experiments, high-fidelity simulations and control design and the cutting-edge infrastructure and expertise of large-scale flow control testing at ILOT. The overarching aim of WINGPULSE is to develop and demonstrate PJA concepts for flow separation control with efficiency beyond the state-of-the-art (reducing the net mass flow by a factor of 3-5. UNOTT and ILOT will bring together their respective expertise in Computational Fluid Dynamics, aerodynamics, high integrity wind tunnel testing and development of novel flow control actuation systems, including pulsed jet actuator systems, to deliver the two models that facilitate the flow control test programme for UHBR integration in Clean Sky LPA WP1.5.3.

Optofluidic control is emerging as a promising tool in wide applications like pharmaceutics, chemistry, energy, and biology, due to the development of micro-fluidic chip. The control unit usually requires complex optical set-ups or special materials for working fluid or micro-channel. The aim of the present project is to develop a light controlled microvalve technique that can be utilized to manipulate fluid flow in micro-channels and potentially promote the development of new generation of light driven micropump or micromotor. Numerical model and experimental setup will be established to investigate nanoscale photothermal conversion and temperature manipulation involved in the plasmon-assisted optofluidics. Duo to wide applications of microfluidic devices, this unique project will not only be helpful for European biomedicine industry, including R&D of new drugs, but will also promote fundamental research level in related areas, such as microfluidic control and thermoplasmonics. The project is carefully designed to match the fellow's expertise in thermoplasmonics and the expertise of the host institute in micro-flow and heat & mass transfer. The overall aim of the project is to develop a light controlled microvalve technique that can be utilized to manipulate fluid flow in micro-channels. Meanwhile, the research fellow will contribute his expertise on thermoplasmonics and photothermal conversion, and will provide important training to EU researchers, industrial contacts and undergraduates by: hosting a series of seminars, giving a special lecture on thermoplasmonics for undergraduate students, and participating in outreach activities of the university. The researcher has 5 years’ experience on experimental and numerical studies for nanoscale thermoplasmonics. Combining the host’s supervision on micro-flow and heat and mass transfer, the fellowship will provide him with perfect opportunity to develop the proposed project on optofluidic control.