Investigation of upstream moving pressure waves on a supercritical airfoil

The present work is a preliminary experimental and numerical investigation of wave processes taking place in the flow field on a supercritical airfoil in a defined Mach and Reynolds number range. These waves which originate near the trailing edge propagate upstream in the subsonic region and become apparently weak near the leading edge. Time-resolved pressure measurements performed, reveal the unsteady behaviour of these waves. The frequencies measured are in the order of kHz. The wave structures can also be seen on corresponding time-resolved shadowgraphs. Not yet fully understood, however, is the mechanism which generates the waves as well as their interaction with the boundary layer. Early numerical investigations show that the wave formation is coupled with a vortex formation in the boundary layer.     

Flutter control of a composite plate with piezoelectric multilayered actuators

Active flutter velocity enhancement scheme is presented for lifting surfaces, employing Linear Quadratic Gaussian based multi-input multi-output controller with multilayered piezoelectric actuators. To numerically test the developed concept, a composite plate wing, surface bonded with eight piezoelectric bender actuators and sensors has been considered. A modal flutter control model is formulated in state-space domain using coupled piezoelectric finite element procedures along with unsteady aerodynamics and optimal control theory. The bending – torsion flutter instability has been actively postponed from 44.13 to 55.5 m/s using the energy imparted by the multilayered piezoelectric actuators. As the power requirement by these actuators is comparatively very low with respect to stack actuators, they can be employed in an integrated form to develop active lifting surfaces for real time applications.     

Performance evaluation and parametric analysis on cantilevered ramp injector in supersonic flows

The cantilevered ramp injector is one of the most promising candidates for the mixing enhancement between the fuel and the supersonic air, and its parametric analysis has drawn an increasing attention of researchers. The flow field characteristics and the drag force of the cantilevered ramp injector in the supersonic flow with the freestream Mach number 2.0 have been investigated numerically, and the predicted injectant mole fraction and static pressure profiles have been compared with the available experimental data in the open literature. At the same time, the grid independency analysis has been performed by using the coarse, the moderate and the refined grid scales, and the influence of the turbulence model on the flow field of the cantilevered ramp injector has been carried on as well. Further, the effects of the swept angle, the ramp angle and the length of the step on the performance of the cantilevered ramp injector have been discussed subsequently. The obtained results show that the grid scale has only a slight impact on the flow field of the cantilevered ramp injector except in the region near the fuel injector, and the predicted results show reasonable agreement with the experimental data. Additionally, the turbulence model makes a slight difference to the numerical results, and the results obtained by the RNG k−ε and SST k−ω turbulence models are almost the same. The swept angle and the ramp angle have the same impact on the performance of the cantilevered ramp injector, and the kidney-shaped plume is formed with shorter distance with the increase of the swept and ramp angles. At the same time, the shape of the injectant mole fraction contour at X/H=6 goes through a transition from a peach-shaped plume to a kidney-shaped plume, and the cantilevered ramp injector with larger swept and ramp angles has the higher mixing efficiency and the larger drag force. The length of the step has only a slight impact on the drag force performance of the cantilevered ramp injector. However, it makes a difference to the flow field in the vicinity of the fuel injector, and the subsonic region becomes narrower with the increase of the length of the step.     

Mechanics of very long tethered systems

A space elevator has been proposed as an alternate method for launching satellites; however, the materials available now are not strong enough to support the stress generated in the structure. On the other hand, with the existing technology, a partial elevator is feasible. In this paper, the mechanics of a very long tethered system that functions as a partial elevator is studied. For such a system, the center of mass, center of gravity, and center of orbit are not coincident; disregarding this distinction can lead to erroneous results. A relation between these three points is presented in this paper. A consistent stress distribution along the tether is obtained by taking into account the distinction between these points. Dynamics of the system consisting of two end bodies, the tether (with mass), and a climber is examined. The equations of motion are derived using the Lagrangian formulation and analyzed numerically.     

An improved installation for control moment gyros and its applications on reconfiguration and singular escape

A cluster of control moment gyros (CMGs) is widely used as the actuator of attitude control for modern satellite. However, to use CMGs will induce some accessional problems, like the singularity and the failure of them. In this paper, a rotator for the support bracket of each control moment gyro (CMG) is adopted and its application on reconfiguration and singular escape is discussed. The first step puts forward a novel reconfiguration scheme for the CMGs and applied on a satellite, which can adjust the installation angles of the remaining CMGs and make the CMGs remain axial symmetry. Then the characteristic of the output torque is studied in the process of reconfiguration of the CMGs. Based on this characteristic, a special steering law of the CMGs is designed to counteract the disturbance from the reconfiguration. The feasibility of singularity avoidance via the reconfiguration is also discussed by calculating the derivative of the singularity measurement to the installation angle. A singularity avoidance steering law is proposed based on the above calculation.     

Transient analysis of counterflowing jet over highly blunt cone in hypersonic flow

Understanding the characteristics of various Counterflowing jets exiting from a nose cone is crucial for determining heat load reduction and usage of this device in various conditions. Such jets can undergo several flow regimes during venting, from initial supersonic flow, to transonic, to subsonic flow regimes as the pressure of jet decreases. A bow shock wave is a characteristic flow structure during the initial stage of the jet development, and this paper focuses on the development of the bow shock wave and the jet structure behind it. The transient behavior of a sonic counterflow jet is investigated using unsteady, axisymmetric Navier–Stokes solved with SST turbulence model at free stream Mach number of 5.75. The coolant gas (Carbon Dioxide and Helium) is chosen to inject into the hypersonic air flow at the nose of the model. The gases are considered to be ideal, and the computational domain is axisymmetric. The jet structure, including the shock wave and flow separation due to an adverse pressure gradient at the nose is investigated with a focus on the differences between high diffusivity coolant jet (Helium) and low diffusivity coolant jet (CO₂) flow scenarios.     

Nonlinear 6-DOF control of spacecraft docking with inter-satellite electromagnetic force

Compared to traditional docking systems, spacecraft docking with inter-satellite electromagnetic mechanism has distinct advantages. However, its 6-DOF control problem has not been adequately investigated. From our knowledge, this paper attempts to study the 6-DOF control problem for the first time. Based on the far-field electromagnetic force model and Hill's model, the dynamic model of translational motion is derived; using tracking control strategy, LQR method and estimate of Extended State Observer (ESO), an optimal and robust translational controller is designed to satisfy relative position/velocity requirements of soft docking. Representing the attitude of the docking spacecraft pair by unit quaternion, the attitude dynamic and kinematic models with quaternion expression are derived; using behavior-based coordinated control approach and ESO, a decentralized attitude controller is designed to simultaneously align one spacecraft with its absolute desired attitude and with the other spacecraft of the docking pair, requiring no angular velocity measurement and exhibiting better robust capability. The feasibility and performance of this proposed 6-DOF controller are validated by theoretical deduction and simulation results.     

Time-varying transfer function extraction of an unstable launch vehicle via closed-loop identification

The aerospace launch vehicle, developed today by manufacturers, is characterized by high nonlinearity, open loop instability and time-varying behaviors. The transfer functions of the vehicle can be extracted using well-known linearization methodology. This paper presents an alternative to obtain the transfer functions via closed-loop identification using six degrees of freedom nonlinear simulation software. The pitch program is taken into account as the external excitation. Control and stability of the process are performed using robust PID controller. The model structure with some unknown parameters is obtained after mathematical modeling, thus the case of our problem is a parameter identification one. Time-variant parameters are estimated by Kalman filter approach with the aid of ARX model structure.     

Coupling between structural deformation and attitude motion of large planar space structures suspended by multi-tethers

A planar space structure suspended by multi-tethers is one candidate for large and lightweight structures. For such flexible structures, coupling phenomena between structural deformation and attitude motion must be considered. In the present paper, the dynamic characteristics of a planar structure suspended by multi-tethers are investigated. Simulation results reveal that the coupling occurs for low tether stiffness. In addition, it is shown that the coupling can also occur if a number of the tethers become slack. Thermal deformation of the planar structure is one cause of tether slack. Thermal deformation and the induced attitude motion are also investigated. It is shown that roll and yaw motions become unstable due to thermal deformation. Finally, we modify the condition of the connection between sub-panels in order to reduce the overall thermal deformation, and it is confirmed that large deformation can be inhibited by the modification.     

Validation study of numerical simulations by comparison to measurements in piston-driven shock-tunnels

The simulation of high enthalpy flows, both experimentally and numerically, is a topic of international research efforts. It is important to understand and quantitatively describe the aerothermodynamic phenomena of high speed/high enthalpy flows in order to develop more capable reusable space transportation systems. A CFD-method is used here to model several piston driven shock tunnels used around the world to experimentally study re-entry and supersonic combustion phenomena. The results are compared to measured data (pressure and shock speed) of the various tunnels and shows that the approach is valid and is ideal for the development of new tunnel operating conditions and new tunnels. Using the numerical models, test facilities are compared to each other. For the medium enthalpy condition presented here, the tunnels produce similar test conditions, with the bigger ones having greater levels of nozzle supply pressure relative to the diaphragm rupture pressure, and greater test time.