As the future of flight takes shape, at Zenotech, we’re passionate about empowering the next generation of aerospace innovators and sharing our tools designed to improve aircraft efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and sustainability with high-fidelity aerodynamic design analysis.
Today, we’re heading from Bristol to Brazil to see our tools being put into action and shine a spotlight on Barbara Luz, a bright aerospace engineering student from UFMG, San Paolo, who is making a significant contribution during her placement at Moya Aero.
Currently undertaking a professional experience placement at Moya Aero, Barbara is applying her aerospace engineering knowledge to a ground-breaking project in electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft.
Moya Aero, a forward-thinking spin-off from Brazil’s esteemed ACS Aviation, is on a mission to revolutionise cargo delivery. Founded in 2020, Moya is developing accessible, affordable, efficient, and sustainable aircraft to complement existing logistics.
We caught up with Barbara to find out more about the project she is currently working on…
“It’s been an incredible experience working with the forward-thinking team at Moya Aero on this innovative eVTOL aircraft – a step towards a more efficient, sustainable, and versatile method for cargo transportation. We’re aiming for a significant leap in capabilities, targeting a 300 km range, extended flight times, and a 200 kg payload. The focus on sustainability is inspiring, where improved aerodynamic efficiency directly translates to reduced power consumption and greater cost-effectiveness.”
Delving deeper into the technical aspects, Barbara shared some of the key challenges she’s currently tackling using Zenotech’s products, including our new tool HiPer:
- Propeller integration: optimising how the propellers interact with the overall aircraft aerodynamics.
- Wing separation effects and drag reduction: analysing the complex aerodynamic interactions between the aircraft’s wings and implementing design improvements to maximise efficiency and minimise drag.
- Different positions for propellers: which configuration will improve efficiency?
And, how do Zenotech’s advanced simulation tools play a role?
“Working with Zenotech’s simulation software has been invaluable on this dynamic project. It allows us to rapidly test different design iterations and gain crucial insights into aerodynamic performance early in the development cycle.
“Thanks go to Mark Allan who is always available to answer questions, helping to speed up my learning curve with the HiPer interface. It’s fantastic to have support from the Zenotech team who are always ready to help. While we’re still in the early stages, the accuracy I’ve seen from Zenotech’s tools in previous aero projects gives me confidence in the results we’ll achieve here. It’s exciting to apply the theoretical knowledge I gained at UFMG to real-world challenges with such powerful tools.”
HiPer provides users with the ability to quickly mesh and run scale resolving LES simulations on complex geometries, on their desktop, removing the need for HPC clusters and the associated access to compute resources. Mesh generation is simplified by the use of immersed boundaries and refined Cartesian mesh generation. With this powerful wall-modelled LES, GPU, Immersed Boundary, Finite Difference Navier-Stokes solver, 200M cells can be run on a 24Gb gaming GPU.
This placement at Moya, where she’s utilising cutting-edge tools and contributing to significant advancements, has solidified Barbara’s passion for the field.
“It’s a great team, great workers, and I’m learning so much! I would love to work for Moya after graduation. I’m excited to see the results of this collaboration.”
Inspired by Barbara’s dedication to the project and the innovation at Moya Aero, we’re proud to support this ground-breaking work with our tools, offering a glimpse into the exciting future of sustainable cargo transportation.
We look forward to seeing the impact of Barbara’s contributions. Stay tuned for future updates on this project!
