After being placed in the list of top 3 teams for their proposal for engine design competition with the purpose of designing engines for a hybrid electric medium altitude long endurance search and rescue UAV, the Faras team now is invited to make a presentation of their design at the 2019 AIAA forum.
The main objectives of the competition were to design an engine for a future version of the hybrid electric search and rescue UAV, with an entry-into-service date of 2025. The future flight envelope should have rangeed from take-off at static sea-level conditions to cruise at 12,500 feet/220 KTAS. The endurance was expected to be extended by reducing the fuel consumption and minimizing engine mass. And the engine was expected to provide a 25% fuel savings to reach a 20+ hour loiter at 7,000ft / 190 KTAS for a long endurance search.
It took the Faras team 10 months to complete and submit their proposal in which the power-to-weight is increased by 67%, 31% fuel saving is provided, and engine mass is reduced by 35% compared with the existing models.
The AIAA Foundation sponsors design competitions every year. These competitions offer a great opportunity for students to participate in a simulated real-world problem, allowing students to gain experience and receive useful and constructive feedback from technical experts who sit on AIAA Technical Committees.
Several of the competitions allow students to perform theoretical work and gain real-world insight into the design process. Whether students are designing an aircraft, engine, or space vehicle, they will go through all of the primary design steps involved in determining a solution to a Request for Proposal (RFP). This includes determining a hypothetical solution, testing the hypothesis, evaluating its effectiveness, possibly doing some cost analysis, and finally preparing a report that will be submitted in response to the RFP. These responses are reviewed by experts in the field who will provide constructive responses to the students.
Sharif University of Technology congratulates the talented members of the Faras team, Mohammad Reza Amini Magham (PhD student), and undergraduate students Alireza Ebrahimi, Amir Nazemi, Abolfazl Zolfagharinasab, Hojat Etemadian Mofrad, Vahid Danesh, Mehdi Hamshidiha, Mohammad Mehdi Asna Ashari, Amirreza Safizadeh, and Saeede Kazembeigi, for their valuable achievement.