Virtual flight test techniques to predict a blended-wing-body aircraft in-flight departure characteristics

As one of the promising configurations of the next generation of commercial aircraft,research on departure characteristics of the Blended-Wing-Body(BWB) is of great signification to safe flight limits. A three-degree-of-freedom(3-DOF) virtual flight test in a wind tunnel has been implemented for a candidate configuration to predict the departure characteristics. The support mechanism, the test model and the control law of the virtual flight test are introduced. In order to show the relationship ...     

An active damping vibration control system for wind tunnel models

In wind tunnels, long cantilever sting support systems with low structural damping encounter flow separation and turbulence during wind tunnel tests, which results in destructive low-frequency and big-amplitude resonance, leading to data quality degradation and test envelope limitation. To ensure planed test envelope and obtain high-quality data, an active damping vibration control system independent of balance signal based on stackable piezoelectric actuators and velocity feedback using accelerometer, is proposed to improve the support stability and wind tunnel testing safety in transonic wind tunnel. Meanwhile, a design of powerful sting-root embedded active damping device is given and an active vibration control method is presented based on the mechanism analysis of aircraft model vibration. Furthermore, a self-adaptive fuzzy Proportion Differentiation(PD) control model is proposed to realize control parameters adjustment automatically for various testing conditions. Besides, verification tests are performed in laboratory and a continuous transonic wind tunnel. Experimental results indicate that the aircraft model does not vibrate obviously from -4° to 11° at Ma = 0.6, the number of useable angle-of-attack has increased by 7° at Ma = 0.6 and 5° at Ma = 0.7 respectively, satisfying the requirements of practical wind tunnel tests.     

Wind tunnel test of gust load alleviation for a large-scale full aircraft model

Wind tunnel test is an important way to test the performance of Gust Load Alleviation(GLA). At present, some component-level wind tunnel tests have been carried out in big aviation countries, but there is a lack of full aircraft model GLA tests. In this study, a set of large-scale GLA test system in low-speed wind tunnel is developed, which includes a gust generator, a fivedegree-of-freedom suspension system, a full elastic aircraft model with control system, and gust load measuring devices. Two...     

An experimental system for release simulation of internal stores in a supersonic wind tunnel

Aerodynamic parameters obtained from separation experiments of internal stores in a wind tunnel are significant in aircraft designs. Accurate wind tunnel tests can help to improve the release stability of the stores and in-flight safety of the aircrafts in supersonic environments.A simulative system for free drop experiments of internal stores based on a practical project is provided in this paper. The system contains a store release mechanism, a control system and an attitude measurement system. The release mechanism adopts a six-bar linkage driven by a cylinder, which ensures the release stability. The structure and initial aerodynamic parameters of the stores are also designed and adjusted. A high speed vision measurement system for high speed rolling targets is utilized to measure the pose parameters of the internal store models and an optimizing method for the coordinates of markers is presented based on a priori model. The experimental results show excellent repeatability of the system, and indicate that the position measurement precision is less than0.13 mm, and the attitude measurement precision for pitch and yaw angles is less than 0.126°, satisfying the requirements of practical wind tunnel tests. A separation experiment for the internal stores is also conducted in the FL-3 wind tunnel of China Aerodynamics Research Institute.     

Unsteady aerodynamic modeling at high angles of attack using support vector machines

Accurate aerodynamic models are the basis of flight simulation and control law design.Mathematically modeling unsteady aerodynamics at high angles of attack bears great difficulties in model structure determination and parameter estimation due to little understanding of the flow mechanism.Support vector machines(SVMs)based on statistical learning theory provide a novel tool for nonlinear system modeling.The work presented here examines the feasibility of applying SVMs to high angle-of-attack unsteady aerodynamic modeling field.Mainly,after a review of SVMs,several issues associated with unsteady aerodynamic modeling by use of SVMs are discussed in detail,such as selection of input variables,selection of output variables and determination of SVM parameters.The least squares SVM(LS-SVM)models are set up from certain dynamic wind tunnel test data of a delta wing and an aircraft configuration,and then used to predict the aerodynamic responses in other tests.The predictions are in good agreement with the test data,which indicates the satisfying learning and generalization performance of LS-SVMs.     

Active fault tolerant control for vertical tail damaged aircraft with dissimilar redundant actuation system

This paper proposes an active fault-tolerant control strategy for an aircraft with dissim-ilar redundant actuation system (DRAS) that has suffered from vertical tail damage. A damage degree coefficient based on the effective vertical tail area is introduced to parameterize the damaged flight dynamic model. The nonlinear relationship between the damage degree coefficient and the corresponding stability derivatives is considered. Furthermore, the performance degradation of new input channel with electro-hydrostatic actuator (EHA) is also taken into account in the dam-aged flight dynamic model. Based on the accurate damaged flight dynamic model, a composite method of linear quadratic regulator (LQR) integrating model reference adaptive control (MRAC) is proposed to reconfigure the fault-tolerant control law. The numerical simulation results validate the effectiveness of the proposed fault-tolerant control strategy with accurate flight dynamic model. The results also indicate that aircraft with DRAS has better fault-tolerant control ability than the traditional ones when the vertical tail suffers from serious damage.     

Optimization and design of an aircraft's morphing wing-tip demonstrator for drag reduction at low speeds,Part Ⅱ-Experimental validation using Infra-Red transition measurement from Wind Tunnel tests

In the present paper, an ‘in-house' genetic algorithm was numerically and experimentally validated. The genetic algorithm was applied to an optimization problem for improving the aerodynamic performances of an aircraft wing tip through upper surface morphing. The optimization was performed for 16 flight cases expressed in terms of various combinations of speeds, angles of attack and aileron deflections. The displacements resulted from the optimization were used during the wind tunnel tests of the wing tip demonstrator for the actuators control to change the upper surface shape of the wing. The results of the optimization of the flow behavior for the airfoil morphing upper-surface problem were validated with wind tunnel experimental transition results obtained with infra-red Thermography on the wing-tip demonstrator. The validation proved that the 2D numerical optimization using the ‘in-house' genetic algorithm was an appropriate tool in improving various aspects of a wing's aerodynamic performances.     

风洞虚拟飞行模型机与原型机动力学特性分析

在低速风洞虚拟飞行试验系统中,采用三自由度（3-DOF）球铰支撑动力学相似缩比飞机模型,在气动力矩作用下试验模型可绕质心自由转动。这种带约束的运动与具有六自由度（6-DOF）的真实大气飞行存在差别,鉴于此,对各影响因素逐个剖离并进行了数值模拟和对比分析。结果表明：位移约束使两者间的动力学特性产生较明显的差异,缩比的影响符合相似准则规律,机构摩擦、模型重心与支撑点不重合影响较小,常值干扰力矩对模型的初始响应有一定影响。对比分析结果可以用于指导风洞虚拟飞行试验的开展,并有助于完善风洞虚拟飞行试验技术及其拓展应用。     

Virtual flight test of pitch and roll attitude control based on circulation control of tailless flying wing aircraft without rudders

Circulation Control(CC) realizes rudderless flight control by driving compressed air jet to generate a virtual rudder surface, which significantly improves low detectability. The layout plan of combined control rudder surface is proposed based on the tailless flying wing aircraft. The closed-loop jet actuator system and stepless rudder surface switching control strategy are used to quantitatively study the control characteristics of circulation actuator for pitch and roll attitude through 3-DOF ...     

Dynamics,stability, and control of a four-cable mount system for wind tunnel test

A four-cable mount system is proposed for full-model wind tunnel flutter tests, which may adjust the pitch and roll attitude of the aircraft scaled model and ensure that the model is not subjected to cable tension. The system provides sufficient support to simulate the free flight of the aircraft by applying appropriate spring stiffness and cable tensions. The proposed four-cable mount system is modeled based on Lagrange mechanics, and its dynamics equations consider aerodynamic effects. The singularity of the system and its bifurcation characteristics under flow conditions are analysed to determine the supercritical bifurcation phenomenon for different tension levels and distances from the front suspension point to the mass centre of the model. The mathematical expressions of the longitudinal flight stability of the cable mount system are derived by linearising the system dynamics equations using small perturbations. The influence of the cable tension, spring stiffness, suspension point position, and other factors on the flight stability of the aircraft are analysed. A feedforward control algorithm is proposed to minimize the total elastic potential energy of the system. The results show that the model is in the level flight state when the elastic potential energy of the four-cable mount system is minimized. A feedback control design method is proposed based on the Lyapunov stability theory to derive the closed-loop stability conditions. The system dynamics model that includes the aircraft rigid body model, flexible cables, pulleys, springs, aerodynamic model, and servo motor control is established using the flexible multibody dynamics method. A multibody dynamics solver and Simulink are used to simulate the attitude adjustment of the model in the wind tunnel and verify the supercritical bifurcation characteristics of the system and the effectiveness of the feedback and feedforward control.     

面向先进战斗机研制的风洞模型飞行试验技术

高机动性先进战斗机气动布局与飞控系统设计面临愈加严峻的流动/运动/控制耦合问题,大迎角飞行以及推力矢量等高新技术应用也使其在研制过程中面临更高的技术风险,风洞模型飞行试验是实现飞行器气动/飞行/控制一体化研究、降低研制技术风险的重要手段。介绍了低速风洞模型飞行试验技术原理及国内外发展现状,对试验技术主要特点及其在支撑先进战斗机研制中的作用、应用范围、应用阶段以及面临的主要挑战进行了分析,为试验技术发展和应用提供参考。发展和应用低速风洞模型飞行试验技术,有利于充分挖掘战斗机的气动性能与控制性能,降低试飞风险,是新一代战斗机研制、新技术工程化应用的重要支撑技术。     

大型水陆两栖飞机侧风起降的滑流影响分析

大型水陆两栖飞机AG600的动力装置为安装在机翼上的4台同向旋转涡轮螺旋桨发动机，针对1：15缩比模型带动力风洞试验显示的螺旋桨滑流对侧风起降状态的偏航力矩不稳定影响，对全机带动力风洞试验模型进行了大规模并行非定常数值计算，再现了风洞试验现象，通过流动机理分析明确其产生原因主要是左侧滑时右外翼分离和垂尾背鳍涡破裂，这些原因和数值模拟的准确性也为后期的风洞试验所证实。考虑到模型风洞试验中尺度限制造成的低雷诺数和高螺旋桨转速，为保证飞行安全，继续采用该非定常方法对全尺寸飞机真实侧风起降状态进行了详细数值分析和偏航稳定性评估。研究结果显示，在飞行雷诺数和螺旋桨转速下，相同侧风范围内风洞试验显示的流动不稳定因素基本消失，偏航稳定性允许的侧风范围明显增加。本研究实现了四发螺旋桨飞机起降状态横向气动特性的滑流影响非定常数值分析，建立了基于计算流体力学的风洞与飞行雷诺数效应的相互关系，进行了偏航稳定性的虚拟试飞评估，研究成果也为AG600飞机的首飞和飞行试验所验证。     

风洞虚拟飞行试验技术初步研究

介绍了在航天空气动力技术研究院FD-10低速风洞中建立的风洞虚拟飞行试验系统,和对风洞虚拟飞行试验技术进行了验证性研究的情况。研究的目的是探索风洞虚拟飞行试验技术的原理和关键技术,包括组合式滚转轴承系统和舵面作动系统的缩比模型以及悬挂支撑系统技术。分别进行了模型滚转运动和偏航运动的风洞试验,对模型姿态随舵偏角变化的实时响应进行了风洞试验研究,验证了虚拟飞行的可行性,为建立生产型风洞的虚拟飞行试验装置打下了基础。     

Design of Flight Control System for a Small Unmanned Tilt Rotor Aircraft

A tilt rotor is an aircraft of a special kind, which possesses the characteristics of a helicopter and a fixed-wing airplane. However, there are a great number of important technical problems waiting for settlements. Of them, the flight control system might be a critical one. This article presents the progresses of the research work on the design of flight control system at Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (NUAA). The flight control law of the tilt rotor aircraft is designed with the help of an inner/outer loop control structure and an eigenstructure assignment algorithm on the basis of a proper mathematical model already verified by the wind tunnel tests. The proposed control law has been born out through the construction of the flight control system and the flight tests. Now, the flight tests are still underway on a prototype of small unmanned tilt rotor aircraft. The results have evidenced the credibility of the aircraft design and the effectiveness of the flight control system for the tilt rotor working in the helicopter mode. A full envelope flight test is planned to carry out further researches on the flight control law.     

飞行力学和飞行控制试飞技术

为了适应高增益,全权限数字电传操纵系统飞行试验的需要,利用已研制成功的多台地面飞行模拟器和ＢＷ－１纵向,ＩＦＳＴＡ三自由度空中飞行模拟试验机,模型自由飞研究以及具有现代先进水平的机载数据采集记录和地面实时监控系统等设备和技术手段,进行了电传飞机的飞行品质和飞控稳定性等问题的研究,包括试飞输入设计,电传飞机飞行品质,电传飞控系统稳定裕度等。最后,提出了对下一代飞机飞行力学和飞行控制方面需要研究的试飞