Electromechanical flight actuators for advanced flight vehicles

The aircraft flight quantities and success of the mission depend to a great extent upon the actuator performance, and flight actuators must be designed to achieve the specified criteria. Electromechanical flight actuators driven by electric motors have begun to displace hydraulic technology in advanced flight vehicles. In aerospace application, permanent-magnet stepper motors are perfectly suited due to their efficiency and reliability, low volume-, weight-, and size-to-torque ratios, high power and torque densities, low cost and maintenance, simplicity and ruggedness, etc. Conventional open-loop stepper motor servos do not ensure the required accuracy and dynamic performance. An innovative method in motion control of advanced electromechanical flight actuators is developed, and nonlinear controllers are designed. The specified tracking accuracy, desired stability margins, microstepping capabilities, and disturbance attenuation are ensured by the robust nonlinear controllers synthesized. Analytical, numerical, and experimental results are documented to study the performance of flight actuators directly driven by stepper motors and to demonstrate the efficiency of control algorithms     

Impact of mission requirements and constraints on conceptual launch vehicle design

The objective of this paper is to analyse the impact of mission requirements and constraints on both the optimum vehicle design and the effects on flight path selection for two types of reusable two-stage-to-orbit launch vehicles. The first vehicle type considered provides horizontal take-off and landing capabilities and is intended to be propelled by an airbreathing propulsion system during stage 1 flight. The second vehicle type assumes a vertical launch and is accelerated by a rocket propulsion system during the booster stage ascent flight. The analysis employs a design tool for simultaneous system and mission optimization. It consists of a CAD-based preliminary vehicle design tool, aerodynamic and aerothermodynamic calculation software, flight simulation programs, and a two-level decomposition optimization algorithm enabling simultaneous system and flight optimization. The results to be presented show that the cruise flight requirement for an European launched mission of the airbreathing vehicle results in a loss of 60 % payload mass as compared to a mere accelerated ascent for a near equatorial mission into the same target orbit assuming constant take-off mass. The strong dependencies of mission requirements on both the optimal vehicle design and the ascent performance are determined for the rocket-powered vehicle type by varying the inclination and altitude of the target orbit.     

某新机综合飞行/推进系统H∞控制器设计

针对国内某新型战机及其装配的新型涡轮风扇发动机,本文研究了该综合飞行/推进系统一体化控制问题.首先建立了飞行子系统、推进子系统数学模型,在此基础上得到了飞行/推进系统综合模型;利用H∞混合灵敏度控制器设计方法,设计了综合系统控制器,对控制器设计中的一些关键问题作了讨论;最后通过仿真,表明所设计的综合控制系统具有较好的性能.     

综合飞行/推进控制系统的特征值灵敏度分析和设计

 在综合飞行/推进控制系统中,子系统之间的相互作用对飞机的稳定性、控制和性能具有直接的影响。本文应用特征值灵敏度分析法研究耦合系数的大小对系统稳定性的影响;应用增益灵敏度分析,进行减状态反馈次优设计,仿真结果表明设计合理,方法可行。     

推力耦合的高超声速飞行器气动伺服弹性研究

对于采用吸气式超燃冲压发动机的高超声速飞行器,其发动机推力可能与机身弹性发生耦合影响,从而引起所谓的推力耦合气动伺服弹性(ASE)问题。为对其耦合原理及影响进行研究,以简化的飞行器纵向模型为对象,考虑结构弹性、非定常气动力、冲压发动机以及控制系统之间的相互耦合作用,建立了推力耦合的高超声速飞行器气动伺服弹性问题的一般建模框架和分析流程。采用牛顿冲击理论计算高超声速非定常气动力,基于准一维流动假设分析发动机性能。算例结果表明,考虑发动机推力的耦合影响后,飞行器的短周期特性和气动伺服弹性特性均有明显改变,气动伺服弹性稳定裕度下降可达16%,应当引起飞行控制系统设计部门的重视。     

Multidisciplinary Design and Optimization of Multistage Ground-launched Boost Phase Interceptor Using Hybrid Search Algorithm

This article proposes a multidisciplinary design and optimization (MDO) strategy for the conceptual design of a multistage ground-based interceptor (GBI) using hybrid optimization algorithm, which associates genetic algorithm (GA) as a global optimizer with sequential quadratic programming (SQP) as a local optimizer. The interceptor is comprised of a three-stage solid propulsion system for an exoatmospheric boost phase intercept (BPI). The interceptor's duty is to deliver a kinetic kill vehicle (KKV) to the optimal position in space to accomplish the mission of intercept. The modules for propulsion, aerodynamics, mass properties and flight dynamics are integrated to produce a high fidelity model of the entire vehicle. The propulsion module comprises of solid rocket motor (SRM) grain design, nozzle geometry design and performance prediction analysis. Internal ballistics and performance prediction parameters are calculated by using lumped parameter method. The design objective is to minimize the gross lift off mass (GLOM) of the interceptor under the mission constraints and performance objectives. The proposed design and optimization methodology provide designers with an efficient and powerful approach in computation during designing interceptor systems.     

Proportional fuzzy feed-forward architecture control validation by wind tunnel tests of a morphing wing

In aircraft wing design, engineers aim to provide the best possible aerodynamic performance under cruise flight conditions in terms of lift-to-drag ratio. Conventional control sur-faces such as flaps, ailerons, variable wing sweep and spoilers are used to trim the aircraft for other flight conditions. The appearance of the morphing wing concept launched a new challenge in the area of overall wing and aircraft performance improvement during different flight segments by locally altering the flow over the aircraft's wings. This paper describes the development and appli-cation of a control system for an actuation mechanism integrated in a new morphing wing structure. The controlled actuation system includes four similar miniature electromechanical actuators dis-posed in two parallel actuation lines. The experimental model of the morphing wing is based on a full-scale portion of an aircraft wing, which is equipped with an aileron. The upper surface of the wing is a flexible one, being closed to the wing tip; the flexible skin is made of light composite materials. The four actuators are controlled in unison to change the flexible upper surface to improve the flow quality on the upper surface by delaying or advancing the transition point from laminar to turbulent regime. The actuators transform the torque into vertical forces. Their bases are fixed on the wing ribs and their top link arms are attached to supporting plates fixed onto the flex-ible skin with screws. The actuators push or pull the flexible skin using the necessary torque until the desired vertical displacement of each actuator is achieved. The four vertical displacements of the actuators, correlated with the new shape of the wing, are provided by a database obtained through a preliminary aerodynamic optimization for specific flight conditions. The control system is designed to control the positions of the actuators in real time in order to obtain and to maintain the desired shape of the wing for a specified flight condition. The feasibility and effectiveness of the developed control system by use of a proportional fuzzy feed-forward methodology are demon-strated experimentally through bench and wind tunnel tests of the morphing wing model.     

螺旋桨-自由涡轮涡桨发动机稳态/过渡态数值模拟

为实现对涡桨推进系统整体推进性能的数学模型模拟，以螺旋桨/桨扇作为受飞行外流条件影响的推进系统内流部件之一，引入其特性图，用跟随流量方法解决螺旋桨-自由涡轮转子与涡桨发动机燃气发生器的流量平衡、功率平衡，发展了螺旋桨-自由涡轮涡桨发动机内流特性部件法数学模型，实现了对该类涡桨系统稳态/过渡态的数值模拟。对某8MW三轴桨扇发动机的台架转速特性和飞行任务剖面特性的数值模拟结果表明:该数学模型可以较为准确模拟出包含桨叶变动桨距角、攻角等在内的外流螺旋桨/桨扇部件工作点详细参数，和高度、速度、涡轮前温度同时变化的多条件、多变量涡桨发动机的稳态/过渡态推力、推力耗油率等特性.      

The All-Electric Fighter Airplane Flight Control Issues, Capabilities, and Projections

The prime issues raised in any all-electric airplane discussion are (1) is the electric power system as reliable and trustworthy as a hydraulic power system; (2) can electromechanical flight control actuators perform satisfactorily, i.e., can the performance match that of hydraulic actuators; (3) can redundant electromechanical actuation systems (EMAS) be designed to equal the flight safety reliability of dual tandem hydraulic actuators; and (4) can satisfactory solutions be found or developed for dissipating the heat generated in actuators and power controllers. The first question should be inconsequential since it is assumed that the all-electric aircraft will be equipped with a fly-by-wire (FBW) flight control system (FCS) which is already dependent upon an uninterrupted supply of electrical power. Design studies and hardware already developed show that the answer to question (2) is that EMAS outperform hydraulic actuators, particularly under load. The answer to question (3) is not as clear primarily because the issue has not been addressed in any depth. As posed the answer must be yes, but with the proviso that the weight might be greater than currently predicted. Studies have shown that we can cope with the heat dissipation issue addressed in question (4) in the case of motors and inverter/power controllers. The projections regarding usage of EMAS and the future of the all-electric airplane must be based on the type of vehicle (small subsonic transport, large transport, or military tighter) and the economics involved.     

遗传算法在航空发动机控制中的应用

对于航空发动机这样复杂的系统，经典的定常算法难以对其实现良好控制。遗传算法具有良好的寻优特性，操作方便、速度快，不仅适用于单目标寻优，也适用于多目标寻优。遗传算法可以根据不同的控制系统，针对一个或多个目标，均能在规定的范围内寻找到合适参数。文中采用遗传算法实现了对PID参数的最佳整定。最后，通过数字仿真证明了其在航空发动机控制系统中应用的可能性。     

Aircraft flight control system design under state and controlbounds

Sophisticated control configurations are needed to meet the mission and pilotage requirements for advanced aircraft. The required vehicle performance during low altitude, low speed and high angle of attack flight, all-weather, day and night operations must be achieved, and new control technologies should be developed. This work presents a systematic control design philosophy for flight control systems when the state variables and control inputs are bounded by the prespecified constraints. The design procedure uses the dynamic programming concept. The fundamental idea involves minimization of nonquadratic functionals. A new representation of constraints is proposed using the smooth functions. The advantages of the synthesis approach are presented. To illustrate the design methodology the longitudinal control configuration for the F-18 fighter is synthesized     

基于直升机飞行性能需求的涡轴发动机设计参数选取方法研究

以直升机性能计算方法为基础,辅以考虑尺寸效应及设计能力的涡轴发动机设计方法,建立了以直升机旋翼桨盘载荷及最大起飞功重比为特征参数的直升机/涡轴发动机性能约束分析模型、任务分析模型及基于直升机飞行性能需求的涡轴发动机设计参数选取模型。针对涡轴发动机部件/系统设计能力及直升机飞行性能需求,首先开展了给定涡轴发动机循环参数下的流量匹配计算,然后开展了涡轴发动机循环参数选取研究。研究表明,所建立的直升机/涡轴发动机性能约束分析模型、任务分析模型可实现给定飞行任务的直升机/涡轴发动机性能耦合设计;在给定涡轴发动机循环参数条件,由于尺寸效应,涡轴发动机部件效率受进口流量的影响,其设计点功率并不随流量等比例变化,从而使得直升机起飞总重呈现非等比例变化;在涡轴发动机循环参数选择时,在满足直升机飞行性能需求下,存在涡轴发动机耗油率与单位功率之间权衡下的循环参数选取,使得直升机起飞总重最小。     

H∞控制在飞行/推进综合控制系统中的应用

研究了多变量控制技术应用于飞行/推进一体化控制器的设计问题。对于耦合的飞行子系统和推进子系统,建立了飞行/推进综合模型,分析了对模型输出端乘性不确定性和对跟踪误差性能不确定性的飞行/推进综合多变量反馈控制系统转化为混合灵敏度函数整形问题设计的途径,提出了一种按时间加权的误差平方积分(ITAE)准则选择加权灵敏度函数的方法,应用混合加权灵敏度H∞控制器的设计方法对飞行/推进一体化模型进行了设计,并对所求的最优控制器进行了控制系统性能仿真验证。     

发动机喘振裕度自适应控制

本文研究飞行 /推进系统一体化控制中的发动机喘振裕度自适应控制。通过一定的控制作用 ,使发动机在所有飞行条件和工况下都保持一定的喘振裕度 ,从而充分发挥发动机的潜力。将发动机大偏差模型、进气道及飞机模型综合在一起 ,构成飞机 /推进系统一体化数学模型 ,以进行发动机自适应控制的仿真。计算机仿真表明 ,发动机自适应控制具有很好的性能效益 ,例如在飞行高度 H=10公里 ,飞机由 Ma=0 .65加速到 Ma=0 .90 ,在采用自适应喘振裕度控制后 ,双发动机推力提高 16 ,飞机加速时间缩短 2 3 ,大大提高了飞机性能。     

自动变桨距螺旋桨电推进系统能效优化方法

为了提升自动变桨距螺旋桨电推进系统的整体效率,引入最优功率控制规律：自动变桨距螺旋桨电推进系统可根据飞行工况和推力需求,同时调节桨距角和螺旋桨转速两个变量,最终获得一组桨距角和螺旋桨转速的组合,使得推进系统在满足推力需求的情况下实现最小的功率消耗,最终达成飞行任务剖面内最小能耗控制的目标。为了验证方法的有效性,针对同一电推进系统,分别采用最优功率控制规律和恒速控制规律完成相同的飞行任务剖面,获得了两种控制规律下的螺旋桨推进效率、电动机效率、电推进系统总效率和电推进系统能耗数据。结果证明：相较于恒速控制规律,最优功率控制规律能够有效的提升电推进系统效率并降低能耗,完成相同飞行任务剖面的能耗降低6.3%左右。     

Conceptual design and optimization of a tilt-rotor micro air vehicle

The conceptual design and optimization of a tilt-rotor Micro Air Vehicle(MAV) for a well-defined mission are performed. The objective of this design cycle is to decrease the design time in order to efficiently create a functional tilt-rotor drone. A flight mission is firstly defined for a tiltrotor MAV performing hovering and cruise flight scenarios. Secondly, a complex wing shape is chosen and modeled in order to determine the final shape. The initial shape is scaled in order to acquire an arbitrary wingspan of one meter. For the specific area and wingspan, the aspect ratio of the designed wing shape is found to be equal to 2.32. Thirdly, a constraint analysis of the MAV is performed by using an energy balance analysis for six different flight scenarios. This analysis yields the required power loading and wing loading. Fourthly, the weight of the vehicle is estimated using both statistical and computational methods. After estimating the total weight and the wing loading of the MAV, the surface of the wing is determined, yielding a final wingspan of 0.76 m. Subsequently, considering the total weight of the designed MAV, the needed lift coefficient is determined.Fifthly, using the lift coefficient in conjunction with XLFR5, a batch of airfoils is selected and analyzed to evaluate the aerodynamic coefficients of the wing with each airfoil. This analysis ultimately leads to the optimum airfoil being selected. Finally, design of the fuselage and tail, internal components selection, and servo-mechanisms design are carried out prior to a stability analysis. All these proposed steps are needed to design efficient and functional tilt-rotor MAVs.     

Solar sail trajectories with piecewise-constant steering laws

Solar sails have much attracted the interest of the scientific community as an advanced low-thrust propulsion means capable of promoting the reduction of mission costs and the feasibility of missions that are not practically accessible via conventional propulsion because of their large ΔV requirements. To reduce the overall flight time, a given mission is usually analyzed in the framework of a minimum time control problem, with the employment of a continuous steering law. The aim of this paper is to investigate the performance achievable with a piecewise-constant steering law whose aim is to substantially reduce the complex task of reorienting the sail over the whole mission. Unlike previous studies based on direct approaches, here we use an indirect method to optimally select the sail angle within a set of prescribed values. The corresponding steering law translates the results available for continuous controls to the discrete case, and is able of producing trajectories that are competitive in performance with the optimum variable direction program.     

无人机综合飞行/推力矢量控制

以某无人机为背景,主要研究大机动时带推力矢量的综合飞行/推进控制系统的设计方法。应用非线性动态逆方法,根据无人机本身具有明显不同时间尺度差异的动力学特性,结合奇异摄动理论将控制变量按照响应快慢分为4个回路进行了控制器的设计与仿真;设计推力矢量控制和气动控制相结合的控制器,实现飞行和推力矢量的控制综合;将无人机的任务转化为对飞行控制的限制条件,对所设计的控制系统进行了数字仿真,结果表明所设计的控制器能够满足飞机做大机动时的控制要求。     

Closed-loop dynamic control allocation for aircraft with multiple actuators

A closed-loop control allocation method is proposed for a class of aircraft with multiple actuators. Nonlinear dynamic inversion is used to design the baseline attitude controller and derive the desired moment increment. And a feedback loop for the moment increment produced by the deflections of actuators is added to the angular rate loop, then the error between the desired and actual moment increment is the input of the dynamic control allocation. Subsequently, the stability of the closed-loop dynamic control allocation system is analyzed in detail. Especially, the closedloop system stability is also analyzed in the presence of two types of actuator failures: loss of effectiveness and lock-in-place actuator failures, where a fault detection subsystem to identify the actuator failures is absent. Finally, the proposed method is applied to a canard rotor/wing (CRW) aircraft model in fixed-wing mode, which has multiple actuators for flight control. The nonlinear simulation demonstrates that this method can guarantee the stability and tracking performance whether the actuators are healthy or fail.     

State of art on energy management strategy for hybrid-powered unmanned aerial vehicle

New energy sources such as solar energy and hydrogen energy have been applied to the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle(UAV), which could be formed as the hybrid power sources due to the requirement of miniaturization, lightweight, and environmental protection issue for UAV. Hybrid electrical propulsion technology has been used in UAV and it further enforces this trend for the evolution to the Hybrid-Powered System(HPS). In order to realize long endurance flight mission and improve the energy efficiency of UAV, many researching works are focused on the Energy Management Strategy(EMS) of the HPS with digital simulation, ground demonstration platforms and a few flight tests for the UAV in recent years. energy management strategy, in which off-line or on-line control algorithms acted as the core part, could optimize dynamic electrical power distribution further and directly affect the efficiency and fuel economy of hybrid-powered system onboard.In order to give the guideline for this emerging technology for UAV, this paper presents a review of the topic highlighting energy optimal management strategies of UAV. The characteristics of typical new energy sources applied in UAV are summarized firstly, and then the classification and analysis of the architecture for hybrid power systems in UAV are presented. In the context of new energy sources and configuration of energy system, a comprehensive comparison and analysis for the state of art of EMS are presented, and the various levels of complexity and accuracy of EMS are considered in terms of real time, computational burden and optimization performance based on the optimal control and operational modes of UAV. Finally, the tendency and challenges of energy management strategy applied to the UAV have been forecasted.