Surface modifications for lifting surfaces and greener aviation

Exploring Surface Topography Manufacturing Techniques and Applicability for Future Green Aviation

The team of Camli Badrya, Barbara Linke, both Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, and Rajeevan Amirtharajah, Electrical and Computer Engineering explores how to enable informed and accessible manipulation of aircraft lifting surface topography, including for wings, rotors, propellers, and empennage. The three initial tasks are:

Characterize surface topography for aviation
Explore surface features and manufacturing techniques
Assess sensor technologies to use on or near the lifting surface for boundary layer status

This project is kindly sponsored by the Next Level Research initiative of the College of Engineering at UC Davis.