E. Di Lorenzo, U. Musella, S. Vettori, R. Hallez, J. Debille, B. Peeters, W. Flynn, P.Z. Csurcsia
DOI Number: N/A
Conference number: IFASD-2019-037
Aircraft electrification is going to radically change the air transportation in the future. Being a new technology, it is very important to assess the vibroacoustic behavior of an electric aircraft in order to provide useful information to the design and manufacturing teams on the end-products acoustic and dynamic performances. In this paper an assessment based on the structural dynamics characteristics has been carried out both on the ground and in-flight on the Magnus eFusion, first all-electric aerobatic training airplane in the world. Both challenges and findings related to lightweight aircrafts Ground Vibration Testing (GVT) and in-flight measurements for flutter analysis are discussed. The GVT, required for flutter prediction analysis and Finite Element model update, is typically scheduled very late in the development process, right before the final painting and the maiden flight, in a short time window with the aircraft readyto-fly: high quality and representative frequency response functions are compulsory and testing time is a constraint. This paper describes a GVT campaign carried out at the Magnus facilities in Hungary where several innovative processing techniques and control algorithms have been used for obtaining the experimental modal model of the full aircraft. Special focus has been given to novel processing techniques with the additional target to identify potential structural nonlinearities by the mean of tailored excitation signals. The results from the GVT campaign have been then used to prepare the in-flight tests. In-flight vibration measurements have been performed with a reduced number of sensors for various flight conditions in order to assess the risk to enter into aerodynamic flutter. Finally the comparison between GVT mode shapes and in-flight ones has been performed.