Over the last few decades the design of high lift devices has become a veryimportant part of the total aircraft design process. Reviews of the design processare performed on a regular basis, with the intent to improve and optimize thedesign process.This thesis describes a new and innovative methodology for the design andevaluation of mechanisms for Trailing Edge High-Lift devices. The initial researchreviewed existing High-Lift device design methodologies and current flap systemsused on existing commercial transport aircraft. This revealed the need for a designmethodology that could improve the design process of High-Lift devices, movingaway from the conventional "trial and error" design approach, and cover a widerrange of design attributes. This new methodology includes the use of theinnovative design tool called SYNAMEC. This is a state-of-the-art engineeringdesign tool for the synthesis and optimizations of aeronautical mechanisms. Thenew multidisciplinary design methodology also looks into issues not usuallyassociated with the initial stages of the design process, such as Maintainability,Reliability, Weight and Cost.The availability of the SYNAMEC design tool and its ability to perform Synthesisand Optimization of mechanisms led to it being used as an important module inthe development of the new design methodology. The SYNAMEC tool allowsdesigners to assess more mechanisms in a given time than the traditional designmethodologies.A validation of the new methodology was performed and showed that creditableresults were achieved.A case study was performed on the ATRA-Advance Transport Regional Aircraft,a Cranfield University design project, to apply the design methodology and selectfrom within a group of viable solutions the most suitable type of mechanism for theVariable Camber Wing concept initially defined for the aircraft. The results showthat the most appropriate mechanism type for the ATRA Variable Camber Wing isthe Link /Track Mechanism. It also demonstrated how a wide range of designattributes can now be considered at a much earlier stage of the design.
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