A Novel Method for High Temperature Fatigue Testing of Nickel Superalloy Turbine Blades with Additional NDT Diagnostics.

In this paper, a novel method for high temperature fatigue strength assessment of nickel superalloy turbine blades after operation at different times (303 and 473 h) was presented. The studies included destructive testing (fatigue testing at temperature 950 °C under cyclic bending load), non-destructive testing (Fluorescent Penetrant Inspection and Eddy Current method), and finite element modelling. High temperature fatigue tests were performed within load range from 5200 to 6600 N using a special self-designed blade grip attached to the conventional testing machine. The experimental results were compared with the finite element model generated from the ANSYS software. It was found that failure of turbine blades occurred in the area with the highest stress concertation, which was accurately predicted by the finite element (FE) model.

Integration and Investigation of Selected On-Board Devices for Development of the Newly Designed Miniature UAV.

The article is a development of the topic generally presented in the conference proceedings issued after the 2019 IEEE International Workshop on Metrology for Aerospace. In contrast to topics presented in the conference, the article describes in detail avionic equipment and on-board systems integration process and their in-flight adjustment in regard to the newly designed miniature unmanned aerial vehicle (mini-UAV). The mini-airplane was constructed and assembled in the course of the research project, the purpose of which was to show implementation of a totally new mini-UAV design. The intention of the work was to develop a new unmanned system including an originally constructed small airplane with elements purchased from open market. Such approach should allow to construct a new aerial unmanned system, which technologically would not be very advanced but should be easy to use and relatively inexpensive. The demonstrator mini-airplane has equipment typical for such an object, i.e., electric propulsion, autopilot system, camera head and parachute device for recovery. The key efforts in the project were taken to elaborate an original but easy to use system, to integrate subsystem elements and test them so to prove their functionality and reliability.

The Use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles in Remote Sensing Systems.

This paper describes the possibility of using a small autonomous helicopter to perform tasks using a remote sensing system. This article further shows the most effective way to properly set up autopilot and to process its validation during flight tests. The most important components of the remote sensing system are described and the possibilities of using this system to monitor gas transmission and distribution networks are presented.