Research on uncertainty in measurement assisted alignment in aircraft assembly

Operations in assembling and joining large size aircraft components are changed to novel digital and flexible ways by digital measurement assisted alignment.Positions and orientations（P＆O）of aligned components are critical characters which assure geometrical positions and relationships of those components.Therefore,evaluating the P＆O of a component is considered necessary and critical for ensuring accuracy in aircraft assembly.Uncertainty of position and orientation（U-P＆O）,as a part of the evaluating result of P＆O,needs to be given for ensuring the integrity and credibility of the result;furthermore,U-P＆O is necessary for error tracing and quality evaluating of measurement assisted aircraft assembly.However,current research mainly focuses on the process integration of measurement with assembly,and usually ignores the uncertainty of measured result and its influence on quality evaluation.This paper focuses on the expression,analysis,and application of U-P＆O in measurement assisted alignment.The geometrical and algebraical connotations of U-P＆O are presented.Then,an analytical algorithm for evaluating the multi-dimensional U-P＆O is given,and the effect factors and characteristics of U-P＆O are discussed.Finally,U-P＆O is used to evaluate alignment in aircraft assembly for quality evaluating and improving.Cases are introduced with the methodology.     

A multi-agent based intelligent configuration method for aircraft fleet maintenance personnel

A multi-agent based fleet maintenance personnel configuration method is proposed to solve the mission oriented aircraft fleet maintenance personnel configuration problem. The mainte- nance process of an aircraft fleet is analyzed first. In the process each aircraft contains multiple parts, and different parts are repaired by personnel with different majors and levels. The factors and their relationship involved in the process of maintenance are analyzed and discussed. Then the whole maintenance process is described as a 3-layer multi-agent system （MAS） model. A com- munication and reasoning strategy among the agents is put forward. A fleet maintenance personnel configuration algorithm is proposed based on contract net protocol （CNP）. Finally, a fleet of 10 aircraft is studied for verification purposes. A mission type with 3 waves of continuous dispatch is imaged. Compared with the traditional methods that can just provide configuration results, the proposed method can provide optimal maintenance strategies as well.     

Dynamic modeling of a hose-drogue aerial refueling system and integral sliding mode backstepping control for the hose whipping phenomenon

Dynamic modeling of a hose-drogue aerial refueling system（HDARS） and an integral sliding mode backstepping controller design for the hose whipping phenomenon（HWP） during probe-drogue coupling are studied. Firstly, a dynamic model of the variable-length hose-drogue assembly is built for the sake of exploiting suppression methods for the whipping phenomenon.Based on the lumped parameter method, the hose is modeled by a series of variable-length links connected with frictionless joints. A set of iterative equations of the hose＇s three-dimensional motion is derived subject to hose reeling in/out, tanker motion, gravity, and aerodynamic loads accounting for the effects of steady wind, atmospheric turbulence, and tanker wake. Secondly,relying on a permanent magnet synchronous motor and high-precision position sensors, a new active control strategy for the HWP on the basis of the relative position between the tanker and the receiver is proposed. Considering the strict-feedback configuration of the permanent magnet synchronous motor, a rotor position control law based on the backstepping method is designed to insure global stability. An integral of the rotor position error and an exponential sliding mode reaching law of the current errors are applied to enhance control accuracy and robustness. Finally,the simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed model and control laws.     

High-precision RCS measurement of aircraft’s weak scattering source

The radar cross section(RCS) of weak scattering source on the surface of an aircraft is usually less than 40 d Bsm.How to accurately measure the RCS characteristics of weak scattering source is a technical challenge for the aircraft's RCS measurement.This paper proposes separating and extracting the two-dimensional(2D) reflectivity distribution of the weak scattering source with the microwave imaging algorithm and spectral transform so as to enhance its measurement precision.Firstly,we performed the 2D microwave imaging of the target and then used the 2D gating function to separate and extract the reflectivity distribution of the weak scattering source.Secondly,we carried out the spectral transform of the reflectivity distribution and eventually obtained the RCS of the weak scattering source through calibration.The prototype experimental results and their analysis show that the measurement method is effective.The experiments on an aircraft's low-scattering conformal antenna verify that the measurement method can eliminate the clutter on the surface of aircraft.The precision of measuring a 40 d Bsm target is 3–5 d B better than the existing RCS measurement methods.The measurement method can more accurately obtain the weak scattering source's RCS characteristics.     

Multi-objective optimization of aircraft design for emission and cost reductions

Pollutant gases emitted from the civil jet are doing more and more harm to the environ- ment with the rapid development of the global commercial aviation transport. Low environmental impact has become a new requirement for aircraft design. In this paper, estimation method for emis- sion in aircraft conceptual design stage is improved based on the International Civil Aviation Orga- nization （ICAO） aircraft engine emissions databank and the polynomial curve fitting methods. The greenhouse gas emission （CO2 equivalent） per seat per kilometer is proposed to measure the emis- sions. An approximate sensitive analysis and a multi-objective optimization of aircraft design for tradeoff between greenhouse effect and direct operating cost （DOC） are performed with five geom- etry variables of wing configuration and two flight operational parameters. The results indicate that reducing the cruise altitude and Mach number may result in a decrease of the greenhouse effect but an increase of DOC. And the two flight operational parameters have more effects on the emissions than the wing configuration. The Pareto-optimal front shows that a decrease of 29.8% in DOC is attained at the expense of an increase of 10.8% in greenhouse gases.     

PID Controller Optimization by GA and Its Performances on the Electro-hydraulic Servo Control System

A proportional integral derivative （PID） controller is designed and attached to electro-hydraulic servo actuator system （EHSAS） to control the angular position of the rotary actuator which control the movable surface of space vehicles. The PID gain parameters are optimized by the genetic algorithm （GA）. The controller is verified on the new state-space model of servo-valves attached to the physical rotary actuator by SIMULINK program. The controller and the state-space model are verified experimentally. Simulation and experimental results verify the effectiveness of the PID controller adaptive by GA to control the angular position of the rotary actuator as compared with the classical PID controller and the compensator controller.     

Comparison of aerodynamic characteristics between a novel highly loaded injected blade with curvature induced pressure-recovery concept and one with conventional design

This paper introduces a novel design method of highly loaded compressor blades with air injection.CFD methods were firstly validated with existing data and then used to develop and investigate the new method based on a compressor cascade.A compressor blade is designed with a curvature induced pressure-recovery concept.A rapid drop of the local curvature on the blade suction surface results in a sudden increase in the local pressure,which is referred to as a curvature induced ‘Shock'.An injection slot downstream from the ‘Shock' is used to prevent ‘Shock' induced separation,thus reducing the loss.As a result,the compressor blade achieves high loading with acceptable loss.First,the design concept based on a 2D compressor blade profile is introduced.Then,a 3D cascade model is investigated with uniform air injection along the span.The effects of the incidence are also investigated on emphasis in the current study.The mid-span flow field of the 3D injected cascade shows excellent agreement with the 2D designed flow field.For the highly loaded cascade without injection,the flow separates immediately downstream from the ‘Shock';the initial location of separation shows little change in a large incidence range.Thus air injection with the same injection configuration effectively removes the flow separation downstream from the curvature induced ‘Shock' and reduces the size of the separation zone at different incidences.Near the endwall,the flow within the incoming passage vortex mixes with the injected flow.As a result,the size of the passage vortex reduces significantly downstream from the injection slot.After air injection,the loss coefficient along spanwise reduces significantly and the flow turning angle increases.     

CALCULATION OF FUEL SLOSHING AND ITS COUPLING VIBRATION WITH A TANK

The response of fuel-tank-sloshing to aircraft maneuver is a difficult mathematical problem to be solved. Beginning with setting up the mechanical model and the respective mathematical model, this paper uses both F.E. and B.E.M. to imitate the sloshing process. The paper has developed some special techniques to deal with strong nonlinear characteristics, and provided satisfactory numerical results of displacements and stress for low frequency, resonance, high frequency and fuel tank dynamic response characteristics. The program not only assures convergence and stability of the solution, but also has the function of graphic display. It is a valuable technique to deal with the strong nonlinear oscillation of fuel tank with large amplitude and moving boundary condition on free surface.     

An innovative study on low surface energy micronano coatings with multilevel structures for laminar flow design

Laminar flow design is one of the most effective ways to reduce the drag of a commercial aircraft by expanding the laminar flow region on the surface of the aircraft. As material science develops, the emergence of new materials such as low surface energy materials has offered new choices for laminar flow design of commercial aircraft. Different types of low surface energy micro-nano coatings are prepared to verify the effects on the boundary layer transition position and the drag of the airfoil through wind tunnel tests. The infrared thermal imaging technology is adopted for measuring the boundary layer transition, while the momentum integral approach is employed to measure the drag coefficient through a wake rake. Infrared thermal imaging results indicate that the coatings are capable of moving backward the boundary layer transition position at both a low velocity of Mach number 0.15 and a high velocity of Mach number 0.785. Results of the momentum integral approach demonstrate that the drag coefficients are reduced obviously within the cruising angle of attack range from 1° and 5° by introducing the low surface energy micro-nano coating technology.     

Research of low boom and low drag supersonic aircraft design

Sonic boom reduction will be an issue of utmost importance in future supersonic transport, due to strong regulations on acoustic nuisance. The paper describes a new multi-objective optimization method for supersonic aircraft design. The method is developed by coupling Seebass–George–Darden(SGD) inverse design method and multi-objective genetic algorithm.Based on the method, different codes are developed. Using a computational architecture, a conceptual supersonic aircraft design environment(CSADE) is constructed. The architecture of CSADE includes inner optimization level and out optimization level. The low boom configuration is generated in inner optimization level by matching the target equivalent area distribution and actual equivalent area distribution. And low boom/low drag configuration is generated in outer optimization level by using NSGA-II multi-objective genetic algorithm to optimize the control parameters of SGD method and aircraft shape. Two objective functions, low sonic boom and low wave drag, are considered in CSADE. Physically reasonable Pareto solutions are obtained from the present optimization. Some supersonic aircraft configurations are selected from Pareto front and the optimization results indicate that the swept forward wing configuration has benefits in both sonic boom reduction and wave drag reduction. The results are validated by using computational fluid dynamics(CFD) analysis.     

一种计算隐身飞行器外形RCS的高精度快速算法

针对目前隐身飞行器外形雷达散射截面(RCS)难以准确计算的问题,提出了一种基于目标外形几何特征和矩量法的飞行器RCS算法.通过对矩量法阻抗矩阵元的理论分析,研究了物面感应电流随散射体表面曲率的变化规律,指出感应电流之间的耦合已成为影响隐身飞行器物面电流分布的重要因素,并且指出根据飞行器物面曲率分布可以预知强的感应电流耦合区域,利用这些强的电流耦合能够组成稀疏化的阻抗矩阵,从而实现飞行器RCS的快速求解.以金属双弧柱和典型隐身飞机外形为例,分析验证了物面曲率几何信息对计算结果精度的影响以及在提高计算效率方面的作用.数值结果表明该方法保持了与传统矩量法基本一致的计算精度,但计算时间仅为矩量法的7.2%.     

航迹规划中雷达探测空间的生成

从飞机突防习行任务规划出发，综合考虑地球曲率、陆地（或海洋）的反射和杂波干扰、大气折射和吸收损耗等因素的影响，采用临界散射截面法生成了对空警戒雷达在不同地貌、发现概率下，对不同雷达散射截面的目标的探测空间。计算并分析了飞行高度、目标雷达散射截面、发现概率和地貌等因素对雷达探测空间的影响，以便选择低探测概率的飞行走廓，这对制定和实施安全突防飞行策略有实际意义。     

靶机挂载可变 RCS龙勃透镜时的 RCS起伏特性

训练用靶机尺寸远小于实战中的飞机,其 RCS数值大小和起伏特性与飞机存在较大的差别。为了以低廉的价格为部队训练提供高逼真度的模拟靶机,在靶机机头、翼下等位置放置一定样式的可变 RCS龙勃透镜,可以得到类似实战中飞机的 RCS特性。通过控制龙勃透镜的反射面位置可以改变其 RCS数值,实现模拟靶机 RCS的数值变化。采用靶机挂载可变 RCS龙勃透镜对 MQ-1无人机前向 RCS起伏特性进行了模拟,取得了较好的效果,可为采用靶机挂载可变 RCS龙勃透镜模拟作战飞机的全向 RCS特性提供借鉴。     

Fast coating analysis and modeling for RCS reduction of aircraft

In order to fast analyze the aircraft Radar Cross Section(RCS) and accurately reduce it with Radar Absorbing Materials(RAM), a comprehensive analysis method based on Higher-Order Method of Moments(HOMOM), termed Locally Coating Method(LCM), is proposed in this paper. There are two steps to fast analyze coatings for RCS reduction in this method: analyze the RCS of various parts before coating the aircraft; model a coating over the aircraft and analyze the wave absorbing effect of it. The aircraft RCS is calculated as a whole but analyzed in various parts by LCM, and thus the RCS contribution of different parts can be compared without disturbing the current continuity. A model expansion algorithm is also presented in LCM to model absorption coatings on specified aircraft parts for later stage RCS calculation of the coated aircraft.     

关于低RCS目标外形优化中目标函数的确定

在分析了低RCS目标外形优化中现有的两种目标函数的局限性的基础上,根据雷达检测概率与目标RCS分布之间的关系,提出了一种新的目标函数,即目标在威胁区域内其RCS大于规定的临界RCS的概率。算例表明本文所提出的目标函数比现有的目标函数更为有效,适用范围更广。为低RCS目标外形优化设计以及气动与隐身一体化设计提供了一个合理而有效的目标函数。     

Jerusalem十字架型FSS的仿真设计

在飞行器隐身技术的研究中发现,雷达天线系统通常在飞行器鼻锥方向产生很强的RCS贡献[1]。因此,如何减少雷达天线带外的RCS而又保证自身雷达正常工作已成为目标隐身技术中的一个关键课题。文中介绍了由Jerusalem十字架型振子单元构成的带阻式频率选择表面来有效的控制电磁波的传输和反射,利用单个单元和周期性边界条件的性质,采用理想匹配层(PML)吸收边界、周期边界相结合的方法对无限大频率选择表面进行仿真。借助于有限元软件Ansoft HFSS对Jerusalem十字架型FSS进行了软件建模,并对Jerusalem十字架外形及平面波入射角对频率特性的影响分别进行了仿真,给出了表面波频率选择特性随Jerusalem十字架几何参数和平面波入射角的变化而变化的趋势。     

基于离散伴随方程的三维雷达散射截面几何敏感度计算

针对有限差分法计算雷达散射截面（RCS）梯度效率低，采用高精度雷达散射截面评估时计算代价高的问题，提出了一种基于麦克斯韦积分方程离散伴随方程的RCS梯度高效计算方法。基于伴随方程的梯度计算可以通过一次雷达散射截面求解、一次伴随方程求解获得RCS关于所有设计变量的梯度。其中麦克斯韦积分方程离散伴随方程的形式与原方程基本一致，可以采用矩量法（MOM）及多层快速多极子算法（MLFMA）求解。伴随方程求解计算量与直接雷达散射截面评估基本一致，存储量在直接雷达散射截面评估的基础上增加不明显。通过双椎体模型、导弹模型对基于矩量法、多层快速多极子算法的伴随梯度进行验证，证明了基于伴随方法的RCS梯度计算可以实现复杂外形中RCS梯度的高效、高精度求解，为基于梯度的高精度气动/隐身一体化优化提供了基础。     

Influence of aircraft surface distribution on electromagnetic scattering characteristics

In this paper, two typical stealth aircraft concepts (wing fuselage blended and flying-wing) were designed. Then three gradually changed surface distribution models with the same plan-form for each concept were created. Based on the multilevel fast multipole algorithm (MLFMA), the vertical polarization transmitting/vertical polarization receiving (VV) and horizontal polariza-tion transmitting/horizontal polarization receiving (HH) radar cross section (RCS) characteristics were simulated with five frequencies between 0.1 and 1.0 GHz. The influences and mechanisms of aircraft surface distribution on electromagnetic scattering characteristics were investigated. The results show that for the wing fuselage blended concept, the VV RCS of this frequency range is higher than the HH RCS in most cases, while it is just the opposite for the flying-wing concept. As for the two aircraft concepts, the RCS levels of HH and VV both decrease with the frequency increasing, but the HH RCS has a faster downward trend. The surface distribution has little influ-ence on HH RCS characteristics. On the contrary, it has a significant impact on VV RCS charac-teristics, and the amplitude of the VV RCS increases with the surface thickness.     

Decision-making of Aircraft Optimum Configuration Utilizing Multidimensional Game Theory

As multi-discipline coupling and components interference often affect the aircraft configuration decision-making and analysis during conceptual design process, this article presents an approach of multidimensional game theory based on aircraft components to deal with this problem. The idea is that the configuration decision-making process is regarded as the game for different disciplines and technologies, and the aircraft components are players. The payoff function with highest total gain means that according to the game protocols and multidimensional theory, the optimal aircraft configuration within the strategy set will be chosen. The decision-making model is applied to conceptual design process of the high altitude long endurance (HALE) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) based on the assessment of technological risk. The obtained optimum configuration is quite consistent with the current HALE UAV development trends. Thus, taking into account the coupling and interference factors, the multidimensional gaming model based on aircraft components will be an effective analysis method in the decision-making process of aircraft optimum configuration.     

基于动态RCS的隐身飞机探测概率研究

动态RCS是影响战斗机突防概率的重要因素。围绕动态RCS这一关键要素,建立了空空动态RCS求解模型,得到了典型机动下战斗机的动态RCS变化规律,并分析了基于动态RCS的典型机动下的雷达探测概率。基于仿真的静态RCS数据库,耦合飞机抖动模型,研究了拉升机动、空间机动以及空空对抗下某型隐身飞机的动态RCS。通过仿真发现:战斗机的机腹、垂尾及尾喷管部位RCS较大,从而导致了较高的探测概率;对于拉升机动,保持较大的航路捷径更有利于隐蔽突防。