Pier Marzocca

• PhD Aerospace Engineering
• Professor at RMIT University

In this work, a fully transient, three-dimensional study of the DARPA SUBOFF underwater vehicle is presented using a computationally efficient Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM) solver, based on the Single-Step and Simplified Lattice Boltzmann Method (SSLBM). The SSLBM solver model highly turbulent flows by integrating the Vreman Large Eddy Simulation...

The stability of a multi-span finite length beam resting on periodic rigid and elastic supports is studied in this paper. The beam is compressed by axial forces applied at the edges. The stability analysis of the compressed beam is carried out using the transfer matrix method in conjunction with Bloch-Floquet’s approach. Based on analytical and...

Climate action (SDG-13) is an integral part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the United Nations (UN), and wildfire is one of the catastrophic events related to climate change. Large-scale forest fires have drastically increased in frequency and size in recent years in Australia and other nations. These wildfires endanger the fores...

In this article, an efficient implementation of the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU)-accelerated Single-Step and Simplified Lattice Boltzmann Method for curved (irregular) fluid domains (ISSLBM) is presented, allowing the algorithm to predict the macroscopic flow variables in realistic scenarios, such as the wind flow influenced by complex terrains....

In this paper the authors provide a review of our investigations pertaining to localized bending waves in thinwalled structures. The authors also present the statements and analytical results fortwo new problems related to bending edge wave propagation in homogeneous infinite plate reinforced by inclusions, modelled as elastic beam or elastic plate...

In this paper the stability of a rectangular plate in a supersonic flow in the presence of a temperature field, inhomogeneous across the thickness, is investigated. The temperature field inhomogeneity across the thickness leads to the buckling of the plate, and this buckled state is considered as the initial unperturbed state. Governing equations a...

Vortex-induced vibration (VIV) is a fluid structure interaction phenomena that can lead to the fatigue failure of high-rise structures. To study the basic principles and method of VIV suppression for a cylinder structure, a two-dimensional simulation model using a cylinder with two degrees of freedom in-line and cross-flow directions is presented h...

In this work, a low computational cost GPU Lattice Boltzmann Method, coupled with the LES Vreman turbulence model is presented. The algorithm is capable of simulating low‐ and high‐turbulence flows. In contrast to the fractional‐step presented in the Simplified Lattice Boltzmann Method, the proposed work uses a single‐step approach, allowing faster...

Transfer Matrix Method for Multibody Systems (MSTMM) has high precision and it is easy to formulate, systematic to apply, simple to code and the matrices are low order which contributes to higher computational efficiency than ordinary dynamics methods. It is applied widely in the field of engineering, and the significant effects gained. Based on th...

The vortex induced vibration (VIV) mitigation on a circular cylinder with low mass ratio (i.e. the ratio of structural to displaced fluid mass) parameter and moderate Reynolds numbers through a nonlinear energy sink (NES) is investigated numerically as basis for applications on dynamics of spar platform, marine tunnel or risers used in the ocean en...

Australia has embarked on an extraordinary reform to design, develop and implement a new and contemporary Defence Aviation Safety Framework. The program seeks to establish a single Defence Aviation Safety Authority (DASA) and issue a comprehensive and integrated suite of Defence Aviation Safety Regulation (DASR) for initial and continuing airworthi...

In this article, a highly accurate and GPU accelerated Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM) is presented. The methodology is derived from a combination of conventional and recent LBM algorithms, mainly focusing on reducing the computational time, memory allocation, and complexity of existing algorithms. The general implementation focuses on accelerating...

Aiming at the experimental test of the body freedom flutter for modern high aspect ratio flexible flying wing, this paper conducts a body freedom flutter wind tunnel test on a full-span flying wing flutter model. The research content is summarized as follows: (1) The full-span finite element model and aeroelastic model of an unmanned aerial vehicle...

The problem of vibration and stability of coaxial circular cylindrical shells of finite length is considered when the region between the shells is partially filled with an incompressible liquid. The frequencies of vibration of the hydroelastic system are found depending on the filling depth and the gap thickness. A loss of static stability of the i...

In this paper the problem of linear stability of a closed cylindrical shell under the action of both non-uniform temperature field and supersonic gas flow is considered. The stability conditions for the unperturbed state of the aerothermoelastic system are obtained. It is shown that, by the combined action of the temperature field and the ambient s...

Hybrid electric aircraft propulsion will become a necessity for general and commercial aviation in the near future to enable the achievement of ambitious objectives with respect to a reduction of emissions in air traffic. Furthermore, this technology is crucial to facilitate the introduction of new aircraft concepts such as electric vertical takeof...

Experimental and numerical investigations into the linear and nonlinear aeroelastic behaviour of very flexible High Altitude Long Endurance (HALE) wings are conducted to assess the effect of geometrical nonlinearities on wings displaying moderate-to-large displacement. The study shows that the dynamic behaviour of wings under large deflection, and...

This paper presents a modified embedded software development workflow, while maintaining compliance to DO-178C Standard. The aim is to provide a certifiable flight controller based on Reinforcement Learning Techniques (RL) and applicable to Unmanned Aerial Systems operating in populated areas. RL Techniques are considered here due to its highly int...

The paper broadly addresses how Industry 4.0 program drivers will impact maintenance in aviation. Specifically, Industry 4.0 practices most suitable to aeronautical maintenance are selected, and a detailed exposure is provided. Advantages and open issues are widely discussed and case studies dealing with realistic scenarios are illustrated to suppo...

The objective of this research is to design and build a bimodal vehicle which can operate in both air and water. The design incorporates a variable sweep wing configuration and a compressed gas thruster to clear the water surface. The wing can be folded back 65° to achieve low drag for underwater cruise and a high aspect ratio for long endurance ai...

This paper presents the results of a large-scale parametric investigation of deterministic and non-deterministic "black-box" modeling methods for the prediction of dynamic loading spectra, induced by transonic buffet, on the main wing of a fighter aircraft configuration. The data is representative of a loads calibrated test aircraft, where four poo...

The thermo-mechanical vibration characteristics of doubly-curved nano-composite shells reinforced by graphene nanoplatelets are investigated by considering a uniform distribution of graphene and a first-order shear deformation theory. The mechanical properties of the nano-composite shells are estimated by using the modified Halpin–Tsai model. The g...

This paper describes the application of a novel virtual prototyping methodology to wind turbine blade design. Numeric modelling data and experimental data about turbine blade geometry and structural/dynamical behaviour are combined to obtain an affordable digital twin model useful in reducing the undesirable uncertainties during the entire turbine...

This research project aims to contribute towards the propulsion system of a multi-modal UAV capable of sustained aerial rnight, locomotion in water and deployment from a torpedo tube. This report will rst set the context for thernproject by presenting the background information, motivation and requirements for the UAV propulsion system. To narrow t...

An isolated two-dimensional circular cylinder with two linear degrees of freedom, parallel and perpendicular to the free-stream direction, and owning a nonlinear energy sink (NES) is investigated by fluid–structure interaction (FSI) simulations to assess vortex-induced vibrations (VIV) at moderate Reynolds numbers. Subsequently, the wake-induced vi...

The identification of nonlinear systems in aeroelasticity poses a significant challenge for practitioners, often hampered by the complex nature of aeroelastic response data which may contain multiple forms of nonlinearity. Characterizing and quantifying nonlinearities is further hampered when the response is obtained at a location which is away fro...

The Hilbert-Huang Transform is used to analyze the nonlinear aeroelastic response of a 2D 3DOF aeroelastic airfoil system with control surface freeplay under transonic flow conditions. Both static and dynamic aerodynamic conditions, i.e, for accelerating freestream speed, are considered using a linearized aerodynamic model. The main aim of this pap...

The dynamic instability of electroconductive cylindrical shells interacting with an external magnetic fields is considered in the paper. Two cases of applied external dynamic loads are discussed, namely (i) a harmonic mechanical force, and (ii) a harmonic magnetic field force. Analytical descriptions of the two-dimensional equations and associate c...

This paper presents an adaptive and computationally efficient curvature-guided algorithm for localizing optimum knot locations in fitted splines based on the local minimization of an objective error function. Curvature information is used to narrow the searching area down to a data subset where the local error function becomes one-dimensional, conv...

An impulsive thruster propulsion system that could be used in a multi-modal UAV capable of sustained aerial flight, locomotion in water and deployment from a tube filled with compressed air is under development. This paper covers the design and optimisation process of the propulsive system, as well as its modelling with analytical and CFD simulatio...

Low-fidelity fluid–structure interaction model of flexible propeller blades is assessed by means of comparison with high-fidelity aeroelastic results. The low-fidelity model is based on a coupled extended blade-element momentum model and non-linear beam theory which were both implemented in Matlab. High-fidelity fluid–structure interaction analysis...

In 2015, the First Principles Review (FPR) of Australian Defence recommended an increase in the validity and transparency of estimates of the whole of life cost and capability throughout the Defence acquisition process. FPR also recommended that the value proposition for new capability acquisitions be made explicit rather than being left implicit,...

This paper presents a study to design, analyze and optimize an airfoil trailing edge, i.e., shape morphing of the airfoil trailing-edge topology. The primary idea behind morphing is to improve the wing performance for different flight conditions. Modern aircrafts are designed for unique operating conditions. In order to obtain the best configuratio...

This paper describes the implementation of a framework which can be used to optimize the external shape of an unconventional airship configuration. This framework includes the estimation of Added Masses (AM) which captures the contribution of the dynamic effect related to the acceleration of a body immersed in a fluid having a similar density to th...

Higher-Order Spectra (HOS) are used to characterise the nonlinear aeroelastic behaviour of a plunging and pitching 2-degree-of-freedom aerofoil system by diagnosing structural and/or aerodynamic nonlinearities via the nonlinear spectral content of the computed displacement signals. The nonlinear aeroelastic predictions are obtained from high-fideli...

In this paper, a robust output feedback control design is developed for suppression of aeroelastic vibration of a 2-DOF nonlinear wing section system. The aeroelastic system operates in a quasi-steady aerodynamic incompressible flowfield and is actuated using a combination of a leading-edge (LE) and a trailing-edge (TE) flap. By only utilizing meas...

This paper describes the features of AMCOMP, a CAD environment conceived to manage the computation of the Added Masses of bodies moving in an infinite fluid. A methodology already published in literature has been implemented in a CAD environment and its features are exploited to perform the evaluation of the Added Masses. These include the importin...

Environmental vibrations often exist in a broadband form. To have a robust performance over a wide frequency range, vibration energy harvesters need to be designed to be insensitive to excitation frequencies. In this paper, we propose a novel two-degree-of-freedom (DOF) piezoelectric energy harvester (PEH) with stoppers that introduce nonlinear dyn...

This study has two primary objectives; they are to investigate the nonlinear interactions (or quadratic phase-coupling) in a chaotic Rossler system under periodic closed-loop control via wavelet bispectral analysis; and to further identify the component mechanisms of synchronization. It is observed that a fixed gain fixed frequency controller produ...

Purpose The application of reduced order models (ROMs) in the aerodynamic/aeroelastic analysis of long-span bridges, unlike the aeronautical structures, has not been extensively studied. ROMs are computationally efficient techniques, which have been widely used for predicting unsteady aerodynamic response of airfoils and wings. This paper aims to...

Understanding the effect of mechanical uncertainties can play a significant role in design of the nanocomposites. The uncertain natural frequencies of moderately thick doubly-curved functionally graded composite panels reinforced by carbon nanotube (CNT) are investigated. Specifically, doubly-curved shell panels, including spherical, cylindrical an...

An NACA 0015 airfoil fitted (with flow control capability) with a simple trailing edge flap set at an angle of attack of 16 degrees (deep stall), flap deflection is set at zero degrees at an airspeed of 5 m/s is the subject of this research. The flow conditions analyzed are an un-forced stalled condition and an open loop controlled condition with a...

In the framework of the membrane theory of cylindrical shells, the localised vibration near the shell free edge is considered. This paper presents the development leading to the dispersion equations for finite length shells and for three types of boundary conditions. Based on the attained dispersion equations the localised membrane vibration condit...

This paper describes the outcomes of a Defence initiative to form collaborative partnerships with Australian academic institutions to advance knowledge in the complex field of nonlinear computational aeroelasticity which involves flow-structure interaction (FSI) driven by airframe dynamic response to unsteady aerodynamic loading. The structural mec...

Flutter of sail mounted hydroplanes system is a self-excited dynamic hydroelastic phenomenon due to an undesirable coupling occurring between the elastic structure and hydrodynamic flows. The flutter behavior depends on both structure parameters and free-play nonlinearities in the hydroplanes system. The free-play nonlinearity introduces persistent...

Hydroelastic stability and vibration analysis of full-scale fairwater planes system/or bow planes system mounted on the sail (bridge)/or main body can be quite complex. With the aim of addressing these problems, the present paper, Part I of a two part work, focuses on two aspects: (i) modeling and computation of the natural vibration characteristic...

Purpose This paper aims to describe a methodology to optimize the trajectory of unconventional airship performing a high-altitude docking manoeuvre. Design/methodology/approach The trajectories are based upon Bezier curves whose control points positions are optimized through particle swarm optimization algorithm. A minimum energy strategy is imp...

The development and accelerated use of optimization frameworks in aircraft design is a testament to their ability to identify optimal and often non-intuitive shapes as a result of multi-disciplinary design objectives. Airfoil design is a continuously revised multi-disciplinary problem, and is pivotal to illustrate the performance of optimization fr...

This article contributes to the definition of an unconventional actuation system coupled with an adaptive control algorithm, it is intended specifically for slender/highly flexible wings flutter suppression. The design and validation process of the novel actuation architecture is presented together with the performance analysis of the post-flutter...

Higher-order spectra (HOS) are utilized to investigate the nonlinear flutter behavior of a two-dimensional pitch/plunge airfoil system in transonic flow with freeplay and aerodynamic nonlinearity. It is shown that on the route to diverging flutter the system begins with the pitching and plunging modes being uncoupled and undergoes various evolution...

This article evaluates the amount of energy that can be extracted from a gust using an aeroelastic energy harvester composed of a flexible wing with attached piezoelectric elements. The harvester operates in a subcritical flow region. It is modeled as a linear Euler–Bernoulli beam sandwiched between two piezoceramics. The extended Hamilton’s princi...

The limit cycle oscillations (LCOs) exhibited by long-span suspension bridges in post-flutter condition are investigated. A parametric dynamic model of prestressed long-span suspension bridges is coupled with a nonlinear quasi-steady aerodynamic formulation to obtain the governing aeroelastic partial differential equations adopted herewith. By empl...

Higher-order spectra analysis is carries on the time history of a two-degree-of-freedom aerofoil model with structural nonlinearities introduced via cubic stiffness and pitch / plunge freeplay. The analysis utilises the bispectrum and trispectrum to investigate the time histories and determine the presence quadratic and cubic coupling. As the vario...

The reliability of shell and tube heat exchanger is predicted using a 2-stage physics-based simulation. The first stage uses stochastic porous models of the bundle to estimate operational and environmental uncertainties in flow conditions, such as flow velocity and inlet temperature. The results are used for the second stage, which is the CFD simul...

A modern class of micro aerial vehicles (MAVs) uses deformable membrane wings (DMWs), which comprise rigid or rigidizable structural elements that guarantee stiffness, as well as flexible membranes that provide an aerodynamic shape, all in a compact and lightweight form. To contribute to the body of knowledge about DMWs, this paper presents extensi...

Higher-order spectra analysis is used to analyze the nonlinear flutter characteristics of the AGARD 445.6 wing benchmark model, modified to include freeplay structural nonlinearities in pitch and plunge at the wing root. High-fidelity coupled CFD-CSD fluid-structure interaction simulations are conducted and bispectral densities are computed from se...

Flow control over aerodynamic shapes in order to achieve performance enhancements has been a lively research area for last two decades. Synthetic Jet Actuators (SJAs) are devices able to interact actively with the flow around their hosting structure by providing ejection and suction of fluid from the enclosed cavity containing a piezo-electric osci...

The innovative highly flexible wings made of extremely light structures, yet still capable of carrying a considerable amount of non-structural weights, requires significant effort in structural simulations. The complexity involved in such design demands for simplified mathematical tools based on appropriate nonlinear structural schemes combined wit...

Flow control over aerodynamic shapes in order to achieve performance enhancements has been a lively research area for last two decades. Synthetic Jet Actuators (SJAs) are devices able to interact actively with the flow around their hosting structure by providing ejection and suction of fluid from the enclosed cavity containing a piezo-electric osci...

The aim of this paper is to develop a new concept of unconventional airship based on morphing a lenticular shape while preserving the volumetric dimension. Lenticular shape is known to have relatively poor aerodynamic characteristics. It is also well known to have poor static and dynamic stability after the certain critical speed. The new shape pre...

This paper introduces the Seabus SB-8, a new Wing-In-Ground-Effect (WIGE) craft designed for 8 - 10 passengers. The craft will be used for fast transportation across Port Phillip Bay in Melbourne, Australia. With a cruise speed of about 140 km/hr, it

The flight simulation of airships and hot air balloons usually considers the envelope geometry as a fixed shape, whose volume is eventually reduced by ballonets. However, the dynamic pressure or helium leaks in airships, and the release of air to allow descent in hot air balloons can significantly change the shape of the envelope leading to potenti...

In this paper, a fully adaptive control design is considered for a four-degree-of-freedom aeroelastic system that has structural nonlinearities and operates in an unsteady aerodynamic incompressible flowfield. By using the flap hinge torque of a trailing-edge flap surface in combination with a leading-edge active flap, a closed-loop controller that...

The nonlinear aeroelastic behavior of isotropic rectangular plates in supersonic gas flow is examined. Quadratic and cubic aerodynamic nonlinearities as well as cubic geometrical nonlinearities are considered in this study. While the aerodynamic nonlinearities are the results of the expansion of the nonlinear piston-theory aerodynamics loading up t...

A new Wind Speed Forecasting (WSF) model, suitable for a short term 1–24 h forecast horizon, is developed by adapting Hammerstein model to an Autoregressive approach. The model is applied to real data collected for a period of three years (2004–2006) from two different sites. The performance of HAR model is evaluated by comparing its prediction wit...

A study is conducted to derive and implement a state feedback model reference adaptive control (MRAC) solutions for a 2-D aeroelastic nonlinear system and in evaluating the robustness of different control strategies to damage leading to the deterioration of the structural stiffness characteristics. The standard MRAC, a modified MRAC and the adaptiv...

A novel wing configuration to control flutter and post-flutter limit cycle oscillations is proposed. The new wing consists of a multiple spoiler control surface, with a predefined and coordinated actuation strategy. The proposed architecture, optimized through CFD analysis, is fabricated and tested in the wind tunnel to validate the aerodynamic pro...

This paper describes the development and commissioning tests of the new Clarkson University/Center for Evaluation of Clean Energy Technology Blade Test Facility. The facility is a result of the collaboration between the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority and Intertek, and is supported by national and international partners. Th...