Multifunctional Material and Aerospace Structures Optimization Lab

Research website for the Hartl research team at Texas A&M

Pedro B Camara Leal

leal26@tamu.edu

B.S. in Mechanical Engineering (2014) – Federal University of Rio de Janeiro

M.S. in Mechanical Engineering (2016) – Federal University of Rio de Janeiro

Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering (2020) – Texas A&M University

Pedro is a Ph.D. student in the Aerospace Department at Texas A&M. He has B.S. and M.S. degrees from Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro. He works on developing morphing technology for avian-inspired UAVs and low-boom supersonic transports (SST). During his masters, he worked in collaboration with Embraer in order to develop morphing structures and structural health management techniques. He also received scholarships from INCT (Brazilian National Institute of Science and Technology) and CAPES (Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel) to develop shape memory alloy characterization techniques and actuator prototypes for control surfaces. He is also an avid programmer and developer of Aeropy.

Supersonic aircraft

Pedro is part of an interdisciplinary team that is designing quiet supersonic aircraft.  However, shock waves are unavoidable during supersonic flight, and exposure of people, animals, and structures to these shock waves on the ground cannot be eliminated entirely. Pedro and co-authors have shown that changing atmospheric conditions, gusts, and height above ground can result in any supersonic aircraft that is acceptably quiet at specific atmospheric conditions becoming uncomfortably loud in other flight conditions. A NASA video summarizing the low-boom supersonic effort from Texas A&M featuring Pedro.

Biomechanics and artificial muscles

Pedro has collaborated with zoologists from the University of British Columbia to develop artificial muscles made of shape of memory alloys for bipedal locomotion. The artificial muscles can perform as actuators or brakes on demand. That skeletal muscle as well as artificial muscles can achieve multifunctionality, transitioning between actuator, brake, or spring-like behavior, via changes to stimulus phase. The tunable spring compliance adds a mechanism that can increase or decrease the amount of energy delivered to or dissipated from locomotion,
changing robot gait. This adaptivity is expected to benefit other applications beyond bipedal locomotion.

Google Scholar

Current Research Projects:

Previous Research Projects:

Experience:

  • Visiting Scholar – Utah State University – 2018
  • Visiting Scholar – University of Michigan – 2017
  • Graduate Research Assistant – Maestro Laboratory  – 2016/2020
  • Graduate Research Assistant – Mecanon (Non-linear Mechanics Laboratory)  – 2015/2016
  • Undergraduate Research Assistant – Mecanon (Non-linear Mechanics Laboratory) – 2012/2014

 

Journal papers

  • Leal, P., Giblette, T., Hunsaker, D., Shen, H., Logan, T., and Hartl, D., “Effects of atmospheric profiles on the perceived loudness of low-boom supersonic vehicles”, AIAA Journal, 2020 (accepted).
  • Weaver-Rosen, J., Leal, P., Hartl, D., and Malak, R., “Parametric Optimization for Morphing Structures Design: Application to Morphing Wings Adapting to Changing Flight Conditions”, Structural and Multidisciplinary Optimization, 2020.
  • Leal, P., and Hartl D, “Structurally consistent Class/Shape Transformation equations for morphing airfoils”, Journal of Aircraft, 2018.
  • Leal, P., Savi, M., and Hartl, D., “Aero-structural Optimization of Shape Memory Alloy-based Wing Morphing via a Class/Shape Transformation Approach”, Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part G: Journal of Aerospace Engineering, 2017.
  • Leal, P., and Savi, M., “Design and optimization of a bias SMA flap actuator in a fluid-structure application”, Aerospace Science and Technology, 2017.

Conference Proceedings

  • Lazzara, D., Magee, T., Shen, H., Mabe, J., Leal, P., and Hartl, D., \A Decoupled Method for Estimating Non-Ideal Sonic Boom Performance of Low-Boom Aircraft Due to On-Design Flight Conditions and Non-Standard Atmospheres,” AIAA Scitech 2021.
  • Schrass, J., Leal, P., and Hartl, D. “Structurally Feasible Morphing of a Low-Boom Supersonic Transport”, AIAA Scitech 2020.
  • Mikkelsen, M., Mathew, M., Walgren, P., Bielefeldt, B., Leal, P., Hartl, D., and Arrieta, A., “Morphing airfoil design via L-system generated topology optimization”, SMASIS 2019.
  • Leal, P., Giblette, T., Hunsaker, D., and Hartl, D. “Extended 3D Class/Shape Transformation equations for multicomponent aircraft assemblies”, AIAA Scitech 2019.
  • Stroud, H., Leal, P., and Hartl, D., “Experimental multiphysical characterization of an SMA driven, camber morphing owl wing section”, SPIE 2018.
  • Leal, P., Goecks, V., White, T., Valasek, J., and Hartl, D., “Experimental and computational assessment of a shape memory alloy based morphing wing incorporating linear and non-linear control”, AIAA Scitech 2018.
  • Goecks, V., Leal, P., White, T., Valasek, J., and Hartl, D., “Control of Morphing Wing Shapes with Deep Reinforcement Learning”, AIAA Scitech 2018.
  • Leal, P., Stroud, H., Sheahan, E., Cabral, M., and Hartl, D., “Skin-based camber morphing utilizing shape memory alloy composite actuators in a wind tunnel environment”, Scitech 2018.
  • Leal, P., Stroud, H., and Hartl, D., “Experimental performance of static and morphing concepts for an avian-inspired wing”, SMASIS 2017.
  • Leal, P., Stroud, H., and Hartl, D., “Fabrication and multidisciplinary characterization of a shape-memory based bio-inspired morphing wing”, SMART 2017.
  • Leal, P., Patterson, R., and Hartl, D., “Thermal-structural analysis of a shape memory alloy based bio-inspired morphing wing”, AIAA Scitech 2017.
  • Leal, P., Savi, M., and Hartl, D., “Aero-structural Optimization of Shape Memory Alloy-based Wing Morphing via a Class/Shape Transformation Approach”, AIAA Scitech 2015.

Conference without proceedings:

  • Leal, P., Schrass, J., Weaver-Rosen, J., Malak, R., and Hartl, D., “Structural Analysis of Reconfiguration Methods to Mitigate Weather-related Sonic Boom Perturbations”, AIAA Aviation 2019
  • Leal, P., Cabral, M., and Hartl, D., “Bioinspired Exploration and Design of Shape Memory Materials and Adaptive Structures”, DINAME 2019.
  • Leal, P., Cabral, M., and Hartl, D., “Biomimetic avian muscle loop emulation via shape memory alloys”, SMST 2019.
  • Leal, P., Weaver-Rosen, J., Malak Jr., R., and Hartl, D., “Aerodynamic advantages of utilizing structurally consistent camber morphing wing across changing flight conditions in lightweight aircraft”, SMASIS 2018.
  • Kirstein, L., Mikkelsen, M., Koock, E., Gonzalez, L., Leal, P., and Hartl, D., “Design of a self-contained SMA-based deployable space habitat”, SMST 2017.
  • Leal, P., and Savi, M. “Design and optimization of a bias SMA flap actuator in a fluid-structure application”, CONEM IX, 2016.

Research:

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