Probabilistic transient thermal analysis of an atmospheric reentry vehicle structure

Thermal analysis plays an important role in the structural design of atmospheric reentry vehicles, which are subjected to severe aerodynamic heating. It is sometimes difficult to assess the design safety margin because of uncertainties in the predicted heat flux and the material properties used in the thermal analyses. However, probabilistic techniques allow the effects of uncertainties to be analyzed, and the present study demonstrates the probabilistic thermal analysis of the PARTT reentry vehicle using the Monte Carlo technique to investigate the probabilistic temperature responses. The temperature responses were found to depend significantly on time and location, and reliability was predicted at all locations. The peak temperature of the vehicle's main structure was found to be strongly correlated with heat shield temperature, and analysis of the contributions of random parameters showed that heat flux and heat shield emissivity significantly affect the peak temperature. These results indicate that the thermal design of the heat shield shell is very important for the whole structure. It is expected that such information will provide good insight for the design of a reentry vehicle's structure.     

霍尔推力器寿命实验和计算分析

为了准确高效地预估霍尔推力器寿命,利用在真空舱内工作较短时间后的霍尔推力器结合三坐标测量仪测量其放电室陶瓷绝缘内外壁面轮廓的直径沿周向的变化情况,以此作为输入参数结合概率密度公式获得了高效率的半经验公式法模型和计算结果。采用文献算例对模型和计算代码进行了验证,表明改进后的模型和算法能够在霍尔推力器短时间运行的测量结果基础上较为准确地预测长时间工作后放电室壁面轮廓形状,进而得到推力器的使用寿命。在此基础上,针对影响HET-40推力器寿命的主要因素进行了考察,获得了相关的影响规律。结果表明,其他条件不变的情况下,霍尔推力器的寿命与输入功率乘积近似常数,对于本研究对象,该常数大约为3.6×106 W·h。     

Temperature,atomic oxygen and outgassing effects on dielectric parameters and electrical properties of nanostructured composite carbon-based materials

This work deals with the dielectric properties of carbon-based nanostructured polymeric composite materials. A commercial epoxy matrix is currently filled with multi-walled carbon nanotubes in different percentages, and final composite material characterized in terms of microwave behavior by means of the waveguide method. By following the guidelines of previous studies, the attention is focused on the changes induced by hard environmental conditions (high temperature in ultra-high vacuum system) on the above mentioned properties. The results obtained in this preliminary research have outlined the intriguing properties of carbon nanostructures, establishing themselves as very promising materials for the future aerospace composite technology.     

Autonomous navigation and guidance for landing on asteroids

This paper presents an autonomous landing navigation and guidance scheme for future asteroid sample return mission. An autonomous navigation scheme based on feature tracking technology is brought out firstly; secondly, desired descent landing trajectories with the initial and terminal constraints are planned in order to achieve arrive-at-time landing on an asteroid; then, two guidance control laws, based on error phase analysis method and PD plus PWPF method respectively, are designed to track reference descent trajectory; finally, the validity of the proposed scheme is confirmed by computer simulation.     

Design of solar high altitude long endurance aircraft for multi payload & operations

Research is being carried out at the Turin Polytechnic University with the aim of designing a HAVE/UAV (High Altitude Very-long Endurance/Unmanned Air Vehicle). The vehicle should be able to climb to an altitude of 17–20 km by taking advantage of direct sun radiation and maintaining a level flight; during the night, a fuel cells energy storage system would be used. A computer program has been developed to carry out a parametric study for the platform design. The solar radiation change over one year, altitude, masses and efficiencies of the solar and fuel cells, as well as the aerodynamic performances have all been taken into account. The parametric studies have shown how the efficiency of the fuel and solar cells and mass have the most influence on the platform dimensions. High modulus CFRP has been used in designing the structure in order to minimize the airframe weight. A Blended Wing Body (BWB) configuration of Solar HALE Aircraft Multi Payload & Operation (SHAMPO) with 8 brushless electric motors has been developed, as a result of the parametric study. The BWB solution, compared with conventional designs, seems to provide the best compromise between performance, availability of surfaces for solar-cells, and volume for multi-payload purposes. Several profiles and wing plans have been analyzed using the CFD software Xfoil and Vsaero. The airfoil coordinates at the root and along the wing span as well as the wing planform were optimised to achieve the best efficiency. A FEM analysis was carried out using the Msc/Patran/Nastran code to predict the static and dynamic behaviour of the UAV structure.     

低温等离子体放电区长度对点火起爆的影响

为了研究低温等离子体放电区长度,即放电区间隙不变,体积大小对脉冲爆震发动机点火起爆的影响,以丙烷为燃料,空气和纯氧为氧化剂,充分考虑其详细的化学反应动力学机理,将低温等离子体放电区等效为高温高压火核,对放电区长度为20,40,60mm三种结构,利用Fluent软件,对点火起爆过程进行数值模拟,并进行对比分析.结果表明:将低温等离子体放电区等效为高温高压火核是可行的,能够得到完整的点火起爆过程;不同放电区长度,对初始火焰形成、火焰传播速度和缓燃转爆震(DDT)时间有很大影响,对爆震波峰值压力影响不大.      

基于本征正交分解和代理模型的高超声速气动热模型降阶研究

气动热弹性分析是高超声速飞行器设计的关键技术之一。高超声速飞行器气动热的准确快速预测是气动热弹性分析的重要前提。针对当前气动加热工程计算、数值计算和实验研究均不能很好满足设计要求的问题,采用本征正交分解(POD)与代理模型(Surrogate)技术结合的模型降阶(POD-Surrogate)方法,建立了一种快速高效的高超声速气动热降阶模型框架。针对典型高超声速三维翼面气动热预测研究结果表明:当保留的POD基模态个数大于20时,PODKriging方法和POD-RBF(Radial Basis Function)方法的降阶模型得到的翼面温度分布与计算流体力学(CFD)计算温度L∞平均误差分别达到6%和14%,相对均方根误差(NRMSE)平均误差分别达到4%和12%,继续增加POD的基模态并不能提高降阶模型的预测精度;针对高超声速机翼气动热计算,POD-Kriging方法比POD-RBF方法具有更高的精度;针对典型的高超声速三维翼面气动热预测表明:基于POD-Surrogate方法的气动热降阶模型具有较高的精度和效率。