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At least 253 records · Page 14

Flutter suppression and gust alleviation using active controls

Application of the aerodynamic energy approach to some problems of flutter suppression and gust alleviation were considered. A simple modification of the control-law is suggested for achieving the required pitch control in the use of a leading edge - trailing edge activated strip. The possible replacement of the leading edge - trailing edge activated strip by a trailing edge - tab strip is also considered as an alternate solution. Parameters affecting the performance of the activated leading edge - trailing edge strip were tested on the Arava STOL Transport and the Westwind Executive Jet Transport and include strip location, control-law gains and a variation in the control-law itself.

Nissim, E.↗

The effects of stability augmentation on the gust response of a STOL aircraft during a curved manual approach

The task of investigating the effect of SAS was formulated as two optimal control problems for stochastic systems: (1) to compute SAS gains with a rate model in the performance index algorithm; and (2) to calculate the pilot gains and system gust response using an optimal pilot model. Both problems were solved to yield reasonable low gains for the pilot and SAS, and the lateral directional mode poles and the longitudinal short period poles could be placed accurately by the model matching algorithm. Of the longitudinal (SAS) poles achieved, the vertical rms path error was least for the unaugmented poles. The lateral rms path error was an order of magnitude larger than the vertical error and showed a plus or minus 50 percent variation with SAS. It increased with dutch roll frequency and damping, and it decreased most significantly with increased roll stability. The variation in lateral error with bank angle for curved flight was also a significant function of the augmented poles.

Porter, M. B., Jr.↗

Discussion of an aeromechanical gust alleviation system to improve the ride comfort of light airplanes

A discussion of an on-going NASA research project of a gust alleviation system to improve the ride comfort of a light airplane is presented. The discussion includes a description of the proposed system which uses auxiliary aerodynamic surfaces to drive the trailing-edge flaps. The results of analytical work on the effects of the system on stability and effectiveness of the system are presented. Static wind-tunnel tests of the system installed in a 1/6-scale model of a popular light airplane are also described. Problem areas which may need future investigation are discussed.

Stewart, E. C.↗

The influence of lateral stability on disturbed motions of an airplane with special reference to the motions produced by gusts

Disturbed lateral motions have been calculated for a hypothetical small airplane with various modifications of fin area and dihedral setting. The modifications of the airplane include changes of dihedral and changes of weathercock stability. Fin area and wing dihedral were found to be of primary importance in side gusts. It was found that the rolling action of the wing with as much as 5 deg dihedral was distinctly unfavorable, especially when the weathercock stability was small. It is pointed out that the greatest susceptibility to lateral disturbances lies in the inherent damping and coupling moments developed by the wing.

Jones, R. T.↗

Recent advances in aerodynamic energy concept for flutter suppression and gust alleviation using active controls

Control laws are derived, by using realizable transfer functions, which permit relaxation of the stability requirements of the aerodynamic energy concept. The resulting aerodynamic eigenvalues indicate that both the trailing edge and the leading edge-trailing edge control systems can be made more effective. These control laws permit the introduction of aerodynamic damping and stiffness terms in accordance with the requirements of any specific system. Flutter suppression and gust alleviation problems can now be treated by either a trailing edge control system or by a leading edge-trailing edge control system by using the aerodynamic energy concept. Results are applicable to a wide class of aircraft operating at subsonic Mach numbers.

Nissim, E.↗

Application of the aerodynamic energy concept to the selection of transfer functions for flutter suppression and gust alleviation using active controls

Changes are introduced in the aerodynamic energy approach which lead to an increase in the effectiveness of both the trailing-edge (TE) and the leading-edge (LE)-TE control systems. Control laws are determined, using realizable transfer functions, which permit the introduction of aerodynamic damping and stiffness terms in accordance with the requirements of any specific system. It is shown that flutter suppression and gust alleviation problems can successfully be treated either by a TE or by a LE-TE control system. The results obtained are applicable to a very wide class of aircraft operating within the subsonic Mach number range.

Nissim, E.↗

Simulation study of gust alleviation in a tilt rotor aircraft, volume 1

The response to vertical turbulence in cruise of the HTR XV-15 design is studied using simulation techniques. This design is a modified version of the XV-15 with a hingeless fiberglass soft-in-plane rotor system. The parameters of a gust alleviation system are determined and the performance of the system is evaluated over a range of cruise velocities and altitudes.

Amos, A. K.↗

An analysis of the gust-induced overspeed trends of helicopter rotors

Equations for analyzing the potential gust-induced overspeed tendency of helicopter rotors are presented. A parametric analysis was also carried out to illustrate the sensitivity of rotor angular acceleration to changes in rotor lift, propulsive force, tip speed, and forward velocity.

Jenkins, J. L., Jr.↗

The YF-12 Gust Velocity Measuring System

A true gust velocity measuring system designed to alleviate complications resulting from airframe flexibility and from the high-speed, high-temperature environment of supersonic cruise aircraft was evaluated on a YF-12 airplane. The system uses fixed vanes on which airflow direction changes produce differential pressure variations that are measured. Airframe motions, obtained by postflight integration of recorded angular rate and linear acceleration data, are removed from the flow angle data. An example of turbulence data obtained at high-altitude, supersonic flight conditions is presented and compared with previous high-altitude turbulence measurements obtained with subsonic aircraft and with turbulence criteria contained in both military and civil design specifications for supersonic cruise vehicles. Results of these comparisons indicate that the YF-12 turbulence sample is representative of turbulence present in the supersonic cruise environment.

Ehernberger, J.↗

Synchronization of wind turbine generators against an infinite bus under gusting wind conditions

Studies of synchronizing a wind turbine generator against an infinite bus are performed on a digital computer. In the digital simulation, wind gusts of different magnitudes and durations are hypothesized. Prior to the synchronization, differences of the frequency and phase position between voltages of the alternator and the bus are also included in the simulation. Solutions for rotor speed, generator power angle, electromagnetic torque, wind turbine torque, wind turbine blade pitch angle, and armature current are simulated and presented graphically. The ERDA-NASA 100-kW wind turbine is used as a case study. The results so obtained will thus have immediate applications.

Hwang, H. H.↗

Turbulent transport model of a thunderstorm gust front

A second-order closure turbulent model is adopted to predict complex fluid flows; few a priori assumptions about the internal turbulent and mean flow structures are required. The flow simulations are applied to the analysis of local gust fronts generated by rain-cooled outflows from severe thunderstorms. Results of the simulations provide a means for discussing the behavior of an aircraft passing through a thunderstorm-related downdraft.

Teske, M. E.↗

Evaluation of a wind-tunnel gust response technique including correlations with analytical and flight test results

A wind tunnel technique for obtaining gust frequency response functions for use in predicting the response of flexible aircraft to atmospheric turbulence is evaluated. The tunnel test results for a dynamically scaled cable supported aeroelastic model are compared with analytical and flight data. The wind tunnel technique, which employs oscillating vanes in the tunnel throat section to generate a sinusoidally varying flow field around the model, was evaluated by use of a 1/30 scale model of the B-52E airplane. Correlation between the wind tunnel results, flight test results, and analytical predictions for response in the short period and wing first elastic modes of motion are presented.

Redd, L. T.↗

Effect of spanwise gust variations

The spanwise, vertical force, and rolling moment effects of random gusts encountered by aircraft are analyzed. Mathematical models are given for approximating atmospheric turbulence.

Houbolt, J. C.↗

Calculation of the transient motion of elastic airfoils forced by control surface motion and gusts

The time-domain equations of motion of elastic airfoil sections forced by control surface motions and gusts were developed for the case of incompressible flow. Extensive use was made of special functions related to the inverse transform of Theodorsen's function. Approximations for the special cases of zero stream velocity, small time, large and time are given. A numerical solution technique for the solution of the general case is given. Examples of the exact transient response of an airfoil are presented.

Balakrishnan, A. V.↗

Transonic flutter and gust-response tests and analyses of a wind-tunnel model of a torsion free wing airplane

An exploratory study of a 1/5.5 size, complete airplane version of a torsion free wing (TFW) fighter aircraft was conducted. The TFW consisted of a wing/boom/canard assembly on each fuselage side that was interconnected by a common pivot shaft so that the TFW could rotate freely in pitch. The effect of the TFW was evaluated by comparing data obtained with the TFW free and the TFW locked to the fuselage. With the model mounted on cables to simulate an airplane free flying condition, flutter boundaries were measured at Mach number (M) from 0.85 to 1.0 and gust responses at M = 0.65 and 0.90. The critical flutter mode for the TFW free configuration was found experimentally to occur at M = 0.95 and had the rigid TFW pitch mode as its apparent aerodynamic driver.

Ruhlin, C. L.↗

Practical gust load alleviation and flutter suppression control laws based on a LQG methodology

A modified linear quadratic Gaussian (LQG) synthesis procedure has been used to design low-order robust multiloop controllers for a flexible airplane. The introduction of properly constructed fictitious Gauss-Markov processes in the control loops allowed meeting classical frequency-domain stability criteria using the direct synthesis procedures of modern time-domain control theory. Model reduction was used to simplify the control laws to the point where they could be easily implemented on onboard flight computers. These control laws provided excellent gust load and flutter mode control with good stability margins and compared very favorably to other control laws synthesized by the classical root-locus technique.

Gangsaas, D.↗

Design for active and passive flutter suppression and gust alleviation

Analytical design techniques for active and passive control of aeroelastic systems are based on a rational approximation of the unsteady aerodynamic loads in the entire Laplace domain, which yields matrix equations of motion with constant coefficients. Some existing schemes are reviewed, the matrix Pade approximant is modified, and a technique which yields a minimal number of augmented states for a desired accuracy is presented. The state-space aeroelastic model is used to design an active control system for simultaneous flutter suppression and gust alleviation. The design target is for a continuous controller which transfers some measurements taken on the vehicle to a control command applied to a control surface. Structural modifications are formulated in a way which enables the treatment of passive flutter suppression system with the same procedures by which active control systems are designed.

Karpel, M.↗