Coactive design of explainable agent-based task planning and deep reinforcement learning for human-UAVs teamwork

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are useful in dangerous and dynamic tasks such as search-and-rescue, forest surveillance, and anti-terrorist operations. These tasks can be solved better through the collaboration of multiple UAVs under human supervision. However, it is still difficult for human to monitor, understand, predict and control the behaviors of the UAVs due to the task complexity as well as the black-box machine learning and planning algorithms being used. In this paper, the coactive design method is adopted to analyze the cognitive capabilities required for the tasks and design the interdependencies among the heterogeneous teammates of UAVs or human for coherent collaboration. Then, an agent-based task planner is proposed to automatically decompose a complex task into a sequence of explainable subtasks under constrains of resources, execution time, social rules and costs. Besides, a deep reinforcement learning approach is designed for the UAVs to learn optimal policies of a flocking behavior and a path planner that are easy for the human operator to understand and control. Finally, a mixed-initiative action selection mechanism is used to evaluate the learned policies as well as the human’s decisions. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methods.     

Advances in critical technologies for hypersonic and high-enthalpy wind tunnel

Hypersonic and high-enthalpy wind tunnels and their measurement techniques are the cornerstone of the hypersonic flight era that is a dream for human beings to fly faster, higher and further. The great progress has been achieved during the recent years and their critical technologies are still in an urgent need for further development. There are at least four kinds of hypersonic and high-enthalpy wind tunnels that are widely applied over the world and can be classified according to their operation modes. These wind tunnels are named as air-directly-heated hypersonic wind tunnel, light-gas-heated shock tunnel, free-piston-driven shock tunnel and detonation-driven shock tunnel, respectively. The critical technologies for developing the wind tunnels are introduced in this paper, and their merits and weakness are discussed based on wind tunnel performance evaluation. Measurement techniques especially developed for high-enthalpy flows are a part of the hypersonic wind tunnel technology because the flow is a chemically reacting gas motion and its diagnosis needs specially designed instruments. Three kinds of the measurement techniques considered to be of primary importance are introduced here, including the heat flux sensor, the aerodynamic balance, and optical diagnosis techniques. The techniques are developed usually for conventional wind tunnels, but further improved for hypersonic and high-enthalpy tunnels. The hypersonic ground test facilities have provided us with most of valuable experimental data on high-enthalpy flows and will play a more important role in hypersonic research area in the future. Therefore, several prospects for developing hypersonic and high-enthalpy wind tunnels are presented from our point of view.     

带非线性支撑的转子有限元模型求解方法

用数值方法研究了非线性支撑的柔性转子系统的动学行为,提出了一种将有限元与非线性支撑结合的模型和求解方法。利用有限元法(FEM)构建转轴和转盘部分的模型,通过矩阵进行组合;利用离散元方法对包含滚动轴承和挤压油膜阻尼器(SFD)的支撑部分进行建模,此部分包含4个单元,分别为轴承内圈、外圈、SFD内圈和支撑鼠笼。有限元部分和离散元部分通过轴端节点相连,仿真过程中轴端位移传递给非线性支撑部分,支撑部分通过位移计算得到的非线性力反过来作用于有限元转子轴端部分。为了耦合求解有限元转子和非线性支撑组成的数学模型,提出了一种综合的迭代求解方法,克服传统的有限元求解方法对轴端隐性非线性支撑的求解局限性。由于转轴部分采用了Timoshenko梁单元建模,对比与简单转子模型,可以考虑陀螺力矩和轴的柔性特征,更能体现非线性支撑对振动真实影响。在建立的20个轴单元的有限元转子模型中,非线性响应更多体现在靠近非线性支撑的节点1和节点21处,响应频谱中靠近轴端的节点能体现出滚动轴承的2倍和3倍变柔振动频率。     

风扇/压气机周向模态识别中传感器角度偏差的影响

基于任意角度压缩感知(CS)方法分析了传感器安装角度偏差对风扇/压气机周向模态识别重构的影响,设计了一套自适应角度优化程序修正重构误差。利用数值试验探究了传感器角度偏差和数量对周向模态重构结果的影响,研究表明:当角度偏差等级为2.5%时,平均重构误差达到10%以上,若保证重构误差基本不变,将传感器数量从7个增加至25个,仅可以将角度偏差等级放宽至4%。而采用小生境微种群遗传算法进行自适应角度优化,在20 dB信噪比下,通过自适应角度优化可将角度偏差等级从2.5%放宽至10%,降低了传感器安装的精度要求。成功优化了一款冷却风扇在前三阶叶片通过频率下的主要周向声模态重构幅值。自适应角度优化算法有效提升了基于压缩感知的风扇/压气机周向模态重构可靠性。     

Experimental investigations of the spray structure and interactions between sectors of a double-swirl low-emission combustor

In this paper, the spray characteristics of a double-swirl low-emission combustor are analyzed by using Particle Imaging Velocimetry (PIV) and Planar Laser Induced Fluorescence (PLIF) technologies in an optical three-sector combustor test rig. Interactions between sectors and the influence of main stage swirl intensity on spray structure are explained. The results illustrate that the swirl intensity has great effect on the flow field and spray structure. The spray cone angle is bigger when the swirl number is 0.7, 0.9 than that when the swirl number is 0.5. The fuel distribution zone is larger and the distribution is more uniform when the swirl number is 0.5. The fuel concentration in the center area of the center plane of side sector (Plane 5) is larger than that of the center plane of middle sector (Plane 1). The spray cone angle in Plane 5 is larger than that in Plane 1. The width of spray cone becomes larger with the increase of Fuel–Air Ratio (FAR), whereas the spray cone angle under different fuel–air ratios are absolutely the same. The results of the mechanism of spray organization in this study can be used to support the design of new low-emission combustor.     

Sensitivity analysis of flowfield modeling parameters upon the flow structure and aerodynamics of an opposing jet over a hypersonic blunt body

Implementation of an opposing jet in design of a hypersonic blunt body significantly modifies the external flowfield and yields a considerable reduction in the aerodynamic drag. This study aims to investigate the effects of flowfield modeling parameters of injection and freestream on the flow structure and aerodynamics of a blunt body with an opposing jet in hypersonic flow. Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations with a Shear Stress Transport (SST) turbulence model are employed to simulate the intricate jet flow interaction. Through utilizing a Non-Intrusive Polynomial Chaos (NIPC) method to construct surrogates, a functional relation is established between input modeling parameters and output flowfield and aerodynamic quantities in concern. Sobol indices in sensitivity analysis are introduced to represent the relative contribution of each parameter. It is found that variations in modeling parameters produce large variations in the flow structure and aerodynamics. The jet-to-freestream total-pressure ratio, jet Mach number, and freestream Mach number are the major contributors to variation in surface pressure, demonstrating an evident location-dependent behavior. The penetration length of injection, reattachment angle of the shear layer, and aerodynamic drag are also most sensitive to the three crucial parameters above. In comparison, the contributions of freestream temperature, freestream density, and jet total temperature are nearly negligible.     

Percolation transition in temporal airport network

The air transportation system has a critical impact on the global economy. While the system reliability is essential for the operational management of air traffic, it remains challenging to understand the network reliability of the air transportation system. This paper focuses on how the global air traffic is integrated from local scale along with operational time. The integration process of air traffic into a temporally connected network is viewed as percolation process by increasing the integration time constantly. The critical integration time T_P which is found during the integration process can measure the global reliability of air traffic. The critical links at T_P are also identified, the delay of which will influence the global integration of the airport network. These findings may provide insights on the reliability management for the temporal airport network.     

Optimization and verification of free flight separation similarity law in high-speed wind tunnel

Based on the similarity of separation time, a similarity law optimization method for high-speed weapon delivery test is derived. The typical separation state under wind load is simulated by the numerical method. The real separation data of aircraft, separation data of previous test methods, separation data of ideal wind tunnel test of previous methods, and simulation data of the proposed optimization method are obtained. A comparison of the data shows that the method proposed can improve the performance of tracking. Similarity law optimization starts with the development of motion equations and dynamic equations in the windless state to address the problems of mismatching between vertical and horizontal displacement, and to address the problems of separation trajectory distortion caused by insufficient gravity acceleration of the scaling model of existing light model. The ejection velocity of the model is taken as a factor/vector, and is adjusted reasonably to compensate the linear displacement insufficiency caused by the insufficient vertical acceleration of the light model method, so as to ensure the matching of the vertical and horizontal displacement of the projectile, and to improve the consistency between the test results of high-speed projection and the actual separation trajectory. The optimized similarity law is applicable to many existing free-throwing modes of high-speed wind tunnels. The optimized similarity law is not affected by the ejection velocity and hanging mode of the projectile. The optimized similarity law is suitable not only for the launching of the buried ammunition compartment and external stores, but also for the test design of projectile launching and gravity separation.     

Cross-sectional deformation behavior of double-ridged rectangular tube with fillers in different stages of H-typed bending

The bent double-ridged rectangular tube (DRRT) with high forming quality is helpful to improve the microwave transmission accuracy. For reducing the cross-sectional deformation in the H-typed bending process, in addition to using rigid mandrel to support the inside of tube, ridge groove fillers are also added to restrict the deformation of ridge grooves. Because of the change of stress and strain state of bent tube in bending, rigid mandrel retracting and specially twice-springback stages, and the springback of fillers, the cross-sectional deformation of tube in each stage may be different. Therefore, based on the ABAQUS platform, the finite element models (FEM) for H-typed bending, mandrel retracting and twice-springback stages of H96 DRRT with fillers were established and validated. It is found that, for the height and width deformation of tube and spacing deformation of ridge grooves, retraction of mandrel can make the distribution of these deformations more uniform along the bending direction. The first springback can reduce these deformations significantly, which should be emphasized. But the second springback only increases them by less amount, which can be ignored. The smaller height deformation of ridge groove and filler can be neglected.     

Corrosion mechanism investigation of TiN/Ti coating and TC4 alloy for aircraft compressor application

It is imperative to develop multifunctional erosion and corrosion resistant coatings for compressor blades of aircraft engines in harsh environment. PVD (Physical Vapor Deposition) technology has the advances in processing erosion-resistant coatings; however, the performance of PVD coatings to combat corrosion depends on various coating defects. Determining and comparing the corrosion performances of PVD TiN/Ti coating and uncoated TC4 alloy was the main objective of present work. The 960 h salt spray corrosion and 116 h hot corrosion tests were conducted to simulate the grounding and working environments of the aircraft compressors. The corrosion mechanisms due to the coating defects such as pinhole, columnar boundary and large grain were analyzed based on the OM, Confocal microscope, electrochemical measurements, SEM, XRD and EDS results. Owing to the disordered state associated with the columnar boundary and the coating defect, nitrogen could be easily replaced by oxygen in the hot corrosion process, these structures were channels for fast diffusion of oxygen. Moreover, the Gibbs energy changes of Ti oxidation and TiN oxidation were thermodynamically calculated according to the working condition of aircraft compressors, and considerable research effort was focused on mapping out the phase diagram of Ti, TiN and high pressure gases. The findings of this research can provide insights into developing multifunctional coatings for future aircraft engines.