This paper shows the theoretical development and application of dynamic gain scheduled control – a novel method for the control of nonlinear systems – to an aircraft model. The idea behind this method is to schedule the control law gains with a fast varying state variable rather than with a slow varying state or an input parameter. This is advantageous as it is then possible to schedule the gains with a state variable that is dominant in the mode that we are most interested in controlling. The use of this type of gain scheduling is shown to improve the transient response of the aircraft model when stepping between trim conditions and to overcome some of the problems associated with conventional gain scheduled controllers (such as control surface position limit saturation). ‘Hidden coupling terms’ that introduce unwanted dynamics when scheduling gains with a fast state (rather than the input design parameter) are eliminated directly by applying a transformation to the classical parameter-scheduled gain distributions which are calculated using eigenstructure assignment. A second order longitudinal model and a 5th order longitudinal/lateral model of the ICE 101-TV tailless delta-wing aircraft configuration are used to demonstrate the design process.

The analytical capacity models of an airport with two runways system are developed in this paper and the theoretical capacity curves yielded by this model are analysed. The statistic airport capacity estimation methodology based on historical data is introduced as well. Both analytical models and statistic strategy are applied to estimate the capacity of the two runways system of a typical airport. Two sets of airport capacity curves obtained in different ways are compared and analysed. The result of the analysis indicates that the mathematical model works effectively in a fairly accurate way in the estimation of airport capacity.

An experimental investigation was performed to study the effects of surface roughness on the Mach 8·2 hypersonic turbulent shockwave–boundary-layer interaction characteristics of a deflected control flap configuration. In particular, the surface pressure and heat transfer distribution along a quasi-2D ramp compression corner model was measured for flap angles between 0° and 38°, along with a Schlieren flow visualisation study. It was found that surface roughness, of scale 10% of the hinge-line boundary layer thickness, significantly increased the extent of the interaction, while increasing the magnitude of the peak pressure and heat flux just aft of reattachment. The incipient separation angle for a fully turbulent, Mach 8·2 boundary layer with a hinge line Reynolds number of 1·44 × 106, was estimated at 28-29°, reducing to between 19-22° with the introduction of laminar sub-layer scale surface roughness.

This paper presents infra-red signature data for a small-scale, low pressure ratio turbojet engine typical of that used in unmanned air vehicle applications. The aim of the study was to test a number of different convergent nozzle designs concentrating on those with trailing edge modifications. The engine used in the tests has a single stage centrifugal compressor and radial inflow turbine and is designed to produce approximately 150N of thrust at 103,500rpm using liquid propane fuel. The test rig consisted of a calibrated thrust stand whilst the engine was controlled through an electronic engine control unit and laptop PC. The jet plume was visualised using an infra-red spectroradiometer which yielded qualitative data across the infra-red spectrum. Simultaneous measurements were also made of the engine thrust. A Pitot probe was used to take pressure readings across different sections of the exhaust flow. Analysis of the infrared signature of the engine exhaust plume and any thrust penalty yielded a performance comparison for each of the nozzles tested. Correlation of engine thrust with engine rpm showed that, within the accuracy of the measurements, there was no significant thrust penalty associated with the notched nozzles. Infra-red imagery of the plain and 60° notched nozzles indicated that the latter reduced the length of the hottest part of the exhaust plume by approximately 33%. The spectroradiometer data shows a significant reduction in spectral radiance for the CO2 wavelength of approximately 4·3µm when the notched nozzles are used. The 60° notched nozzle appeared to perform best in reducing the spectral radiance at this wavelength. Centreline total pressure measurements in the exhaust plume correlated well with the infra-red imagery in that a potential core length reduction of up to 30% could be achieved using the 60° notched nozzle. Total pressure contours recorded 20mm (0·43D) downstream of the nozzle exit plane suggest that the notched nozzles are promoting increased mixing through radial spreading of the jet possibly associated with increased streamwise vorticity (although the latter could not be confirmed). There were also signs that the jet plumes being investigated were swirling.

The results of the subsonic doublet lattice method (DLM), i.e. generalised unsteady aerodynamic forces (GAFs) at a set of reduced frequencies, are often used as input to the solution of the flutter equation. Solutions of the flutter equation are usually required at many more reduced frequencies than GAFs are calculated for by the DLM and some form of interpolation is therefore required. In the p-k formulation of Rodden, Harder and Bellinger, the imaginary part of the GAFs appear as QI/k, i.e. the imaginary part of the GAFs divided by the reduced frequency. In the case of real (i.e. non-oscillatory) roots of the flutter equation, the solution is determined entirely by the steady GAFs and the limiting value of QI/k at zero frequency. This is also true of the g-method of flutter solution as the two formulations are equivalent at k = 0. Expressions are derived for calculating the limiting values of QI/k directly from the DLM, thereby making the real roots independent of the interpolation of the GAFs. The exact way in which the low frequency DLM results are interpolated has a small effect on the interpolation quality in the case of the p-k flutter equation, whereas it has a significant qualitative effect on the results of the g-method of flutter solution of Chen.

Typically, aircraft wing structural panels are designed against buckling for a very large number of possible loadings that may occur during the operation of the aircraft. If the optimisation procedure accounts only for a limited number of design loads, the structure may be vulnerable to a specific type of loading that may cause the structure to fail. A novel approach for the optimisation of ribs or plates of arbitrary shapes under uncertain loads is proposed. The geometry of the rib is defined by a single closed spline or several connected splines. The loading distribution is not considered to be uniform but it is allowed to vary within an admissible set, conferring uncertainty to the applied loads. The admissible load space comprises distributed normal and shear loadings that can be represented through a collection of piecewise linear functions defined along the plate boundary. A special procedure is applied to handle the constraint that the loading must be self equilibrating. A minimax strategy is used to deal with the loading variability such that the resulting optimal design is able to withstand an entire class of linear piecewise loadings along the rib boundary. The refinement of the loading representation may be completely independent of the refinement of finite element mesh. The validity of the proposed approach is assessed by applying it to an aeronautical wing rib.

2D numerical simulations of flows generated by a synthetic jet actuator with a circular orifice were conducted at two different diaphragm displacement settings, one representing a typical laminar case and the other a fully turbulent case. The flow in the cavity was included in the computation in order to provide more accurate predictions. A velocity boundary condition was applied at the neutral position of the diaphragm to account for its temporal deformation. Comparisons were made between the computational results and existing PIV and hot-wire data in terms of the time sequence of the velocity vector field, velocity variations in space and with time. It is found that computational results for the laminar case agree well with the experimental data. Four turbulent models were tested for the fully turbulent case. It was found that the predictions using the RNG κ-ε and Standard k-ε models were reasonably close to the experimental data. This initial study has produced some encouraging evidence for the capacity of FLUENT in simulating the key features of synthetic jets.

Avoiding collisions with other aircraft is an absolutely fundamental capability for semi-autonomous UAVs. However, an aircraft avoiding moving obstacles requires an evasive tactic that is simultaneously very quick to compute, compatible with the platform’s flight dynamics, and deals with the subtle spatio-temporal features of the threat.

We will give an overview of a novel prototype method of rapidly generating smooth flight-paths constrained to avoid moving obstacles, using an efficient trajectory-optimisation technique. Obstacles are described in terms of simple geometrical shapes, such as ellipsoids, whose centres and shapes can vary with time. The technique generates a spatio-temporal trajectory which offers a high likelihood of avoiding the volume in space-time excluded by the predicted motion of each of the known obstacles. Such a flight-path could then be passed to the aircraft’s flight-control systems to negotiate the threat posed by the obstacles. Results from a demonstration implementation of the collision-avoidance technique will be discussed, including non-trivial scenarios handled well within 100ms on a 300MHz processor.

This paper examines the design of a composite helicopter rotor blade to meet given cross-sectional properties. As with many real-world problems, the choice of objective and design variables can lead to a problem with a non-linear and/or non-convex objective function, which would require the use of stochastic optimisation methods to find an optimum. Since the objective function is evaluated from the results of a finite element analysis of the cross section, the computational expense of using stochastic methods would be prohibitive. It is shown that by choosing appropriate simplified design variables, the problem becomes convex with respect to those design variables. This allows deterministic optimisation methods to be used, which is considerably more computationally efficient than stochastic methods. It is also shown that the design variables can be chosen such that the response of each individual cross-sectional property can be closely modelled by a linear approximation, even though the response of a single objective function to many design parameters is non-linear. The design problem may therefore be reformulated into a number of simultaneous linear equations that are easily solved by matrix methods, thus allowing an optimum to be located with the minimum number of computationally expensive finite element analyses.

The aerodynamic performances of a non-slender 50° delta wing with various leading-edge bevels were measured in a low speed wind tunnel. It is found that the delta wing with leading-edge bevelled leeward can improve the maximum lift coefficient and maximum lift to drag ratio, and the stall angle of the wing is also delayed. In comparison with the blunt leading-edge wing, the increment of maximum lift to drag ratio is 200%, 98% and 100% for the wings with relative thickness t/c = 2%, t/c = 6.7% and t/c = 10%, respectively.

Fatigue management in military aviation remains problematic and can be easily neglected by planners and aircrew in a busy operational environment. The basic assessment tool (BAT) is an objective and educational computer tool for evaluating and combining various fatigue factors. It provides an impartial performance comparison while at the same time educating and reminding its users of the importance of fatigue management. Individual factors of the BAT were chosen because they affect fatigue, sleepiness, alertness and performance. A short explanation of components not chosen is also included. An example of how the BAT can be used is described and figures of the resulting outputs (screenshots) are included. Most commercial fatigue estimation products are subjective and do not consider specific issues associated with tactical operations in a field environment. This novel approach can be used to help plan missions by minimizing the BAT score while still maximising the tactical advantage and keeping fatigue management fresh in the minds of military rotary wing pilots while in training and on operations. Although the BAT is military aviation focused and objective, it can be easily modified to suit particular fatigue concerns.

Dye visualisation of both inclined synthetic jets and skewed synthetic jets was undertaken in a cross-flow experiment and the results were compared with those of normal synthetic jets. The process of vortex roll-up near the orifice exit and how the structure develops and interacts with the cross-flow as it propagates downstream was investigated so as to obtain an understanding of the effect of orifice orientation on the behaviour of synthetic jets. The effects of varying Reynolds number, velocity ratio and Strouhal number due to changes in diaphragm displacements and freestream velocities on the characteristics of synthetic jets were also examined. It is observed that in comparison to the normal jets vortical structures produced by both inclined and skewed jets tend to stay closer to the near wall region where maximum flow control effect is required. In both cases, at a relatively low Reynolds number and velocity ratio the active structures produced by the synthetic jet appear to be hairpin vortices which turn into vortex rings that migrate away from the wall as the Reynolds number and velocity ratio increase. These hairpin vortices are persistent in the near wall region hence are believed to be desirable structures for delaying flow separation.

Vortex merger is studied within the context of two-dimensional discrete vortex sheets and demonstrated on two equally oriented circular vortices and aircraft tip and flap vortices. It is confirmed that, depending on the wing load distribution, the latter may or may not coalesce into a single counter-rotating pair. The interaction of a vortex with an equally oriented shear layer, governed by the same physical principle, suggests a possible intensification of an aircraft vortex in cross-wind shear.