A CFD-based numerical virtual flight simulator and its application in control law design of a maneuverable missile model

A CFD-based Numerical Virtual Flight (NVF) simulator is presented, which integrates an unsteady flow solver on moving hybrid grids, a Rigid-Body Dynamics (RBD) solver and a module of the Flight Control System (FCS). A technique of dynamic hybrid grids is developed to control the active control surfaces with body morphing, with a technique of parallel unstructured dynamic overlapping grids generating proper moving grids over the deflecting control surfaces (e.g. the afterbody rudders of a missile). For the flow/kinematic coupled problems, the 6 Degree-Of-Freedom (DOF) equations are solved by an explicit or implicit method coupled with the URANS CFD solver. The module of the control law is explicitly coupled into the NVF simulator and then improved by the simulation of the pitching maneuver process of a maneuverable missile model. A nonlinear dynamic inversion method is then implemented to design the control law for the pitching process of the maneuverable missile model. Simulations and analysis of the pitching maneuver process are carried out by the NVF simulator to improve the flight control law. Higher control response performance is obtained by adjusting the gain factors and adding an integrator into the control loop.