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At least 253 records · Page 14
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2008

Ares-I-X Stability and Control Flight Test: Analysis and Plans

The flight test of the Ares I-X vehicle provides a unique opportunity to reduce risk of the design of the Ares I vehicle and test out design, math modeling, and analysis methods. One of the key features of the Ares I design is the significant static aerodynamic instability coupled with the relatively flexible vehicle - potentially resulting in a challenging controls problem to provide adequate flight path performance while also providing adequate structural mode damping and preventing adverse control coupling to the flexible structural modes. Another challenge is to obtain enough data from the single flight to be able to conduct analysis showing the effectiveness of the controls solutions and have data to inform design decisions for Ares I. This paper will outline the modeling approaches and control system design to conduct this flight test, and also the system identification techniques developed to extract key information such as control system performance (gain/phase margins, for example), structural dynamics responses, and aerodynamic model estimations.

Brandon, Jay M.↗
NASA NTRS2009

An Investigation of Rotorcraft Stability-Phase Margin Requirements in Hover

A cooperative study was performed to investigate the handling quality effects from reduced flight control system stability margins, and the trade-offs with higher disturbance rejection bandwidth (DRB). The piloted simulation study, perform on the NASA-Ames Vertical Motion Simulator, included three classes of rotorcraft in four configurations: a utility-class helicopter; a medium-lift helicopter evaluated with and without an external slung load; and a large (heavy-lift) civil tiltrotor aircraft. This large aircraft also allowed an initial assessment of ADS-33 handling quality requirements for an aircraft of this size. Ten experimental test pilots representing the U.S. Army, Marine Corps, NASA, rotorcraft industry, and the German Aerospace Center (DLR), evaluated the four aircraft configurations, for a range of flight control stability-margins and turbulence levels, while primarily performing the ADS-33 Hover and Lateral Reposition MTEs. Pilot comments and aircraft-task performance data were analyzed. The preliminary stability margin results suggest higher DRB and less phase margin cases are preferred as the aircraft increases in size. Extra care will need to be taken to assess the influence of variability when nominal flight control gains start with reduced margins. Phase margins as low as 20-23 degrees resulted in low disturbance-response damping ratios, objectionable oscillations, PIO tendencies, and a perception of an incipient handling qualities cliff. Pilot comments on the disturbance response of the aircraft correlated well to the DRB guidelines provided in the ADS-33 Test Guide. The A D-3S3 mid-term response-to-control damping ratio metrics can be measured and applied to the disturbance-response damping ratio. An initial assessment of LCTR yaw bandwidth shows the current Level 1 boundary needs to be relaxed to help account for a large pilot off-set from the c.g. Future efforts should continue to investigate the applicability/refinement of the current ADS-33 requirements to large vehicles, like an LCTR.

Blanken, Chris L.↗
NASA NTRS1980

Optimal member damper controller design for large space structures

Consideration is given to the selection of velocity feedback gains for individual dampers for the members of a structurally controlled large flexible space structure. The problem is formulated as an optimal output feedback regulator problem, and necessary conditions are derived for minimizing a quadratic performance function. The diagonal nature of the gain matrix is taken into account, along with knowledge of noise covariances. It is pointed out that the method presented offers a systematic approach to the design of a class of controllers for enhancing structural damping, which have significant potential if used in conjunction with a reduced-order optimal controller for rigid-body modes and selected structural modes.

Joshi, S. M.↗
NASA NTRS2008

An Active Damping at Blade Resonances Using Piezoelectric Transducers

The NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) is developing an active damping at blade resonances using piezoelectric structure to reduce excessive vibratory stresses that lead to high cycle fatigue (HCF) failures in aircraft engine turbomachinery. Conventional passive damping work was shown first on a nonrotating beam made by Ti-6A1-4V with a pair of identical piezoelectric patches, and then active feedback control law was derived in terms of inductor, resister, and capacitor to control resonant frequency only. Passive electronic circuit components and adaptive feature could be easily programmable into control algorithm. Experimental active damping was demonstrated on two test specimens achieving significant damping on tip displacement and patch location. Also a multimode control technique was shown to control several modes.

Choi, Benjamin↗
NASA NTRS1978

Transfer of training on manual control systems differing in short period frequency and damping characteristics

Each of four groups of 16 subjects was trained on one of four compensatory tracking tasks that differed with regard to short period natural frequency and damping characteristics. After completion of the training sessions, the members of each group either transferred to a task on which they had not been trained or continued with their original task. Analysis of the training data indicated that relative task difficulty was largely determined by system damping which, however, had little effect on the amount of transfer during the transfer trials. The effect of system frequency was essentially reversed, and a marked interaction between training and transfer frequencies was observed in the transfer data. Similar results were obtained both with relative error scores and transinformation scores. Positive transfer was exhibited by most of the groups when they transferred to tasks on which they had not been trained.

Lincoln, R. S.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Piezoelectric Pushers Suppress Vibrations

Vibration-suppressing control systems including piezoelectric actuators undergoing development. Small, lightweight, and rugged. Requires simpler electronic control subsystems and does not require large electromagnet coils. Continues to provide support and some passive damping even when electronic control subsystems or power supplies fail. Intended primarily to enhance safety and prevent damage in rotating machinery by sensing and counteracting vibrations. Useful in suppressing unpredictable vibrations caused by changes in loads, losses of rotating components and consequent imbalances in rotors, and ingestion of foreign objects into turbines.

Kascak, Albert F.↗
NASA NTRS1948

Factors Affecting Lateral Stability and Controllability

The effects on dynamic lateral stability and controllability of some of the important aerodynamic and mass characteristics are discussed and methods are presented for estimating the various stability parameters to be used in the calculation of the dynamic lateral stability of airplanes with swept and low-aspect-ratio wings.

STABILITY, DIRECTIONAL - STATIC↗
NASA NTRS1945

Flight Tests of the Lateral Control Characteristics of an F6F-3 Airplane Equipped with Spring-Tab Ailerons

Tests were made to determine whether spring-tab ailerons tended to oscillate or flutter in speed ranges up to 400 mph. Flight tests showed spring-tab ailerons had desirable light stick forces and no tendency to overbalance. No flutter tendencies were indicated up to 400 mph, and any oscillations following abrupt control deflections were heavily damped. Recommendations were made for modifications to increase aileron effectiveness at low speeds without affecting lateral control at high speeds by increasing available deflection and modifying spring-tab arrangement.

LATERAL CONTROL - GRUMMAN F6F-3↗
NASA NTRS1987

Workshop on Structural Dynamics and Control Interaction of Flexible Structures

The Hubble Space Telescope features the most exacting line of sight jitter requirement thus far imposed on a spacecraft pointing system. Consideration of the fine pointing requirements prompted an attempt to isolate the telescope from the low level vibration disturbances generated by the attitude control system reaction wheels. The primary goal was to provide isolation from axial component of wheel disturbance without compromising the control system bandwidth. A passive isolation system employing metal springs in parallel with viscous fluid dampers was designed, fabricated, and space qualified. Stiffness and damping characteristics are deterministic, controlled independently, and were demonstrated to remain constant over at least five orders of input disturbance magnitude. The damping remained purely viscous even at the data collection threshold of .16 x .000001 in input displacement, a level much lower than the anticipated Hubble Space Telescope disturbance amplitude. Vibration attenuation goals were obtained and ground test of the vehicle has demonstrated the isolators are transparent to the attitude control system.

Davis, L. P.↗
NASA NTRS1982

Integrated airframe propulsion control

Perturbation equations which describe flight dynamics and engine operation about a given operating point are combined to form an integrated aircraft/propulsion system model. Included in the model are the dependence of aerodynamic coefficients upon atmospheric variables along with the dependence of engine variables upon flight condition and inlet performance. An off-design engine performance model is used to identify interaction parameters in the model. Inclusion of subsystem interaction effects introduces coupling between flight and propulsion variables. To analyze interaction effects on control, consideration is first given to control requirements for separate flight and engine models. For the separate airframe model, feedback control provides substantial improvement in short period damping. For the integrated system, feedback control compensates for the coupling present in the model and provides good overall system stability. However, this feedback control law involves many non-zero gains. Analysis of suboptimal control strategies indicates that performance of the closed loop integrated system can be maintained with a feedback matrix in which the number of non-zero gains is small relative to the number of components in the feedback matrix.

Fennell, R. E.↗
NASA NTRS1959

Preliminary Analysis of the Effect of Flow Separation Due to Rocket Jet Pluming on Aircraft Dynamic Stability During Atmospheric Exit

A theoretical investigation was conducted to determine the effects of body boundary-layer separation resulting from a highly underexpanded jet on the dynamic stability of a typical rocket aircraft during an atmospheric exit trajectory. The particular flight condition studied on a digital computer for five degrees of freedom was at Mach 6.0 and 150,000 feet. In view of the unknown character of the separated flow field, two estimates of the pressures in the separated region were made to calculate the unbalanced forces and moments. These estimates, based on limited fundamental zero-angle-of-attack studies and observations, are believed to cover what may be the actual case. In addition to a fixed control case, two simulated pilot control inputs were studied: rate-limited and instantaneous responses. The resulting-motions with and without boundary-layer separation were compared for various initial conditions. The lower of the assumed misalinement forces and moments led to a situation whereby a slowly damped motion could be satisfactorily controlled with rate-limited control input. The higher assumption led to larger amplitude, divergent motions when the same control rates were used. These motions were damped only when the instantaneous control responses were assumed.

Dryer, Murray↗
NASA NTRS1984

Human operator control of a bilateral teleoperator in part-simulation of zero gravity

Remote manipulators (teleoperators) are defined as mechanical devices which extend human manipulative ability to operational environments which are either hostile to or remote from the human operator. Teleoperation involves the explicit and active inclusion of the human operator (HO) in the system control loop. An investigation of human/teleoperator control interactions in the orbital operational environment has been conducted, taking into account the employment of a model describing human neuromotor control as a linear damped harmonic oscillator. The application of this model for the specification of the end point position in teleoperator control is explored, and two experiments are conducted. The results indicate the potential utility of relatively simple models of neuromotor control processes in investigating the interaction of the human operator and controller in teleoperation.

Corker, K.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Joint Langley Research Center/Jet Propulsion Laboratory CSI experiment

This paper describes a joint Control Structure Interaction (CSI) experiment in which Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) damping devices were incorporated into the Langley Research Center (LaRC) Phase 0 Testbed. The goals of the effort were twofold: (1) test the effectiveness of the JPL structural damping methods in a new structure and (2) assess the feasibility of combining JPL local control methods with the LaRC multiple input multiple output global control methods. Six dampers (2 piezoelectric active members, 4 viscous dampers), placed in three different regions of the structure, produced up to 26 dB attenuation in target modes. The combined control strategy in which the JPL damping methods contributed local control action and the LaRC control scheme provided global control action, produced and overall control scheme with increased stability margins and improved performance. This paper presents an overview of the technologies contributed from the two centers, the strategies used to combine them, and results demonstrating the success of the damping and cooperative control efforts.

Neat, Gregory W.↗
NASA NTRS1961

The Effect of Lateral-Directional Control Coupling on Pilot Control of an Airplane as Determined in Flight and in a Fixed-Base Flight Simulator

A flight and fixed-base simulator study was made of the effects of aileron-induced yaw on pilot opinion of aircraft lateral-directional controllability characteristics. A wide range of adverse and favorable aileron-induced yaw was investigated in flight at several levels of Dutch-roll damping. The flight results indicated that the optimum values of aileron- induced yaw differed only slightly from zero for Dutch-roll damping from satisfactory to marginally controllable levels. It was also shown that each range of values of aileron-induced yawing moment considered satisfactory, acceptable, or controllable increased with an increase in the Dutch- roll damping. The increase was most marked for marginally controllable configurations exhibiting favorable aileron-induced yaw. Comparison of fixed-base flight simulator results with flight results showed agreement, indicating that absence of kinesthetic motion cues did not markedly affect the pilots' evaluation of the type of control problem considered in this study. The results of the flight study were recast in terms of several parameters which were considered to have an important effect on pilot opinion of lateral-directional handling qualities, including the effects of control coupling. Results of brief tests with a three-axis side-arm controller indicated that for control coupling problems associated with highly favorable yaw and cross-control techniques, use of the three-axis controller resulted in a deterioration of control relative to results obtained with the conventional center stick and rudder pedals.

Vomaske, Richard F.↗
NASA NTRS1976

B-52 stability augmentation system reliability

The B-52 SAS (Stability Augmentation System) was developed and retrofitted to nearly 300 aircraft. It actively controls B-52 structural bending, provides improved yaw and pitch damping through sensors and electronic control channels, and puts complete reliance on hydraulic control power for rudder and elevators. The system has experienced over 300,000 flight hours and has exhibited service reliability comparable to the results of the reliability test program. Development experience points out numerous lessons with potential application in the mechanization and development of advanced technology control systems of high reliability.

Bowling, T. C.↗
NASA NTRS1979

Stability, controllability and observability of linear matrix-second-order systems

The stability, controllability and observability of lightly damped linear mechanical systems are considered and gyroscopic effects (e.g., control moment gyros) are also included. The structure of the equations is further specified to include both 'rigid' and 'elastic' modes, possibly coupled by gyroscopic terms. Stability and asymptotic stability results are summarized in two theorems. The special structure of the system equations permits a statement of the necessary and sufficient conditions for controllability and observability in terms of simple rank tests. Of great practical significance, the minimum number of actuators and sensors are among the necessary conditions derived. Natural definitions for modal controllability and observability are also evolved which give a direct indication of beneficial locations for actuators and sensors.

Hughes, P. C.↗
NASA NTRS1978

Pilot evaluation of sailplane handling qualities

The evaluation sailplanes were found generally deficient in the area of cockpit layout. The pilots indicated general dissatisfaction with high pitch sensitivity especially when coupled with inertially induced stick forces. While all sailplanes were judged satisfactory for centering thermals and in the ease of speed control in circling flight, pilot opinions diverged on the maneuvering response, pull-out characteristics from a dive, and on phugoid damping. Lateral-directional control problems were noted mainly during takeoff and landing for most sailplanes with the landing wheel ahead of center of gravity. Pilot opinion of in-flight lateral-directional stability and control was generally satisfactory. Five of the evaluation sailplanes exhibited a very narrow airspeed band in which perceptible stall warning buffet occurred. However, this characteristic was considered not objectionable when stall recovery was easy. The pilots objected to the characteristics of a wide airspeed band of stall warning followed by a stall with yawing and rolling tendency and substantial loss of altitude during the stall. Glide path control for the evaluation sailplanes was found to be generally objectionable.

Bennett, A. G., Jr.↗