Design and Process Engineering
· Designing, construction, calculation, technology of manufacturing, technical preparation of manufacturing including assembly and testing,
· Thermal and nuclear power plant devices such as steam and combustion turbines, steam generators, steam power plants and heating plants including nuclear power stations, industrial power engineering and their environmental aspects,
· Water turbines, hydrodynamic and hydrostatic pumps, piping systems, hydroelectric power plants, and pumping stations,
· Machinary and devices for chemical industry, food-stuff industry, and biotechnological treatment lines,
· Construction, modelling and theoretical studies of machines and devices for cutting, forming machines, industrial robots, and manipulators,
· Machine parts and mechanisms, methodology of designing machine elements and working mechanisms of general application with consideration of stochastic qualities of inputs, including the application of special types of machines and devices,
· Cars, vans and lorries, buses, trailers, semi-trailers, and motorcycles,
· Combustion engines for all types of vehicle drives, simulation of combustion engine thermomechanical systems, dynamics of driving gear, engine accessories, ecology,
· Machines and devices for in-plant handling of material and handling between operations, for the mining and transport of building materials, for passenger conveyance in buildings,
· Aerodynamic calculation and designing, flight mechanics, fatigue and durability of aircraft constructions, aeroelasticity of aircraft,
· Quality of machine industry production.

prof. Ing. Václav Píštěk, DrSc.

1. Adaptive flow control based on local pressure distribution over wing

   Main objective of Ph.D. study is closed loop active flow control concept feasibility study. The particular concept should be based on direct pressure field monitoring in the vicinity of the wing surface and consequent manipulation instead of conventional flow control based on state variable changes (e.g. accelerations, angular velocities etc.). The study would be focused on following main areas: - analysis and selection of most appropriate actuator system - analysis and selection of most appropriate sensors for pressure distribution monitoring - control law definition (based on measured parameters) - design of demonstrator for wind tunnel testing Main tools used thorough the study should include theoretical research of current state of the art, numerical modelling of concept, laboratory tests of concept demonstrator and if possible demonstration on small UAV.

   Tutor: Jebáček Ivo, doc. Ing., Ph.D.

2. Automatic execution of manoeuvres for identification and certification purposes with small aircrafts

   In the course of identification of the aerodynamic behaviour of any plane, the execution of flight test manoeuvres as are comprehensively described in respective literature (e.g. see „Flight Vehicle System Identification“ by R.V. Jategaonkar) is the method of choice. But even if the underlying theory is commonly known and accepted, the practical realization of all therein precisely described procedures is a challenge to virtually all manufacturers and pilots of small aircrafts. Since any deviation from these procedures directly results in a reduction of quality of the calculated parameters of the plane, the precise execution of these manoeuvres is indispensable. Nowadays it is state of the art to have specially trained flight test pilots executing these manoeuvres, who struggle to follow the definitions as precisely as possible. However, as identification flights imply a multi axis manipulation of flight conditions, absolute precision in manually flown manoeuvres is virtually impossible due to the limited capacity of reaction of a human being. Only the degree of deviation can be reduced by the state of training of the pilot. This Ph.D. thesis proposal focuses on the development of a small mechatronic unit consisting of sensors, actuators, computers and appropriate software that offers the functionality to fly the above mentioned manoeuvres automatically and moreover reduces the deviations between manoeuvre definition and manoeuvre execution to a minimum. The system necessarily has to affect all three main controls of a plane and shall allow actuating them independently to achieve any desirable combination of multi axis alteration of flight conditions including those that are up to now rather less preferred during conventional aircraft identification procedures. The control surfaces occasionally have to be moved abruptly and with a very high dynamic to a predetermined value which requires high forces at the actuators and a high reaction rate of the control to compensate for the inertia and friction of all control elements. But besides these physical constrains the definition of practicable manoeuvres can be free within the range of operational limits of the particular plane. Nevertheless, any manoeuvre performance must be observed and attended by a flight test pilot that in case of any occurring excess of any operational limit must be able to shut off the system immediately and without any problems to regain manual control on the flight path. For the same reason the system has to implement a highly flexible graphical and textual interface for visualization and configuration purposes that allows an easy observation of the actual state of the performed manoeuvre plus an easy way for intervention. The basic requirement to record all data is hereby unaffected and must allow the post-flight data analysis without any restrictions. Beyond this the system has to offer the possibility for quick and easy integration and disintegration into any small aircraft. This requirement results from legal restrictions in some European states where an automatic flight control for some kinds of small planes is prohibited, although the integration of an autopilot is more often simply not desired e.g. for economic or safety reasons.

   Tutor: Jebáček Ivo, doc. Ing., Ph.D.

3. Bionics in aircraft design

   The most progressive technical solutions are inspired by nature and natural structures. The knowledge in the area of natural sciences in combination with development of new materials, technologies and computational systems enable today to transfer inspiration from natural patterns into complete technical products. The goal of this work is to creatively combined knowledge from biology with progressive engineering technologies and with up to date computational methods in the way that the aircraft primary structure will be designed with optimal distribution of weight frm the aspect of its loading. The main befit will be significant decrease of structural weight. Theoretical part of the work will be aimed at identification of promissing natural patterns and selection of aircraft parts on which those patterns could be applied. Practical output of work will be development of aircraft structure by application of bionics, up to date computational methods and new alloys and by application of progressive technologies such as Additive Layer Manufacturing.

   Tutor: Klement Josef, doc. Ing., CSc.

4. Composite leading edge with high impact resistance

   The topic of composite aircraft structures on Part 25 category aircraft is the advanced topic, especially after the Boing 787 Dreamliner aircraft was launched to the market. Efficiency of composites application, integrity with other structure and the possibility of repair is the subject of many discussions on world forums also under the EU project Clean Sky 2. The aim of the presented topic is methodology of design of such sophisticated part, such as the leading edge of the wing with respect to all structural and technological requirements (such as required compliance, possibility of heating of structure for deicing, impact resistance , repair possibility and easy inspection of possible damage development, etc.) As part of the work the following standard steps are assumed: - orientation in this issue and research of the current state of knowledge - definition of limited conditions of development - proposal for the development and verification of structure design - partial verification of the proposed development steps

   Tutor: Juračka Jaroslav, doc. Ing., Ph.D.

5. Design of an aircraft composite fuselage with the primary structure closed by floor

   The major aim of the study is to develop a concept of a light optimized composite structure for a passenger aircraft. There are two main means suggested allowing decreasing the fuselage structure weight significantly: 1. Excluding the lower part of the fuselage (situated under the floor) from the primary structure. This will allow avoiding to reinforce the edges of large cut-outs (e.g. luggage and undercarriage compartments) with massive beams and bulkheads and use light sandwich skin instead of a conventional skin-stringer structures. 2. Dividing the primary structure cross section contour on 4 parts (upper panel, lower panel and two equal side panels). The thicknesses and stacking sequences of different panels are planned to be different. This will allow optimizing the thicknesses and the staking sequences for each panel within each fuselage bay. The dividing of the contour is needed, because it is known the highest loads (bending moments) are acting in the vertical plane of the fuselage and it is not needed to make the thickness of the side panels equal to the thickness of lower and upper ones. The proposed thesis will be divided on the next parts: • the state-of-the-art review of existing composite fuselage structures of large and medium passenger aircrafts; • the state-of-the-art review of methodologies for composite material structures optimization; • development of the technique and software for optimization of the fuselage structure loaded with several inconsistent load cases; • parametric study of an idealized fuselage bay using developed optimization software. • design of a fuselage bay concept with the primary structure closed by floor.

   Tutor: Juračka Jaroslav, doc. Ing., Ph.D.

6. Load carrying capacity of aircraft structures

   To the programe of load carryin capacity of aircraft structures add algorithm and methodology for calculating of limit load of typical aircraft structure elements on the base of tests and statistics. Create the database for software and practical use in stress analyses . Develop the sowtware for stress analyses and load carrying capacity calculation of beam type of structure. Develop a method to connect CAD programs to load carrying capacity calculating of the structure.

   Tutor: Píštěk Antonín, prof. Ing., CSc.