Abstract
The thermal environment is an important factor in the design of optical systems. This study investigated the thermal analysis technology of optical systems for navigation guidance and control in supersonic aircraft by developing empirical equations for the front temperature gradient and rear thermal diffusion distance, and for basic factors such as flying parameters and the structure of the optical system. Finite element analysis (FEA) was used to study the relationship between flying and front dome parameters and the system temperature field. Systematic deduction was then conducted based on the effects of the temperature field on the physical geometry and ray tracing performance of the front dome and rear optical lenses, by deriving the relational expressions between the system temperature field and the spot size and positioning precision of the rear optical lens. The optical systems used for navigation guidance and control in supersonic aircraft when the flight speed is in the range of 1–5 Ma were analysed using the derived equations. Using this new method it was possible to control the precision within 10% when considering the light spot received by the four-quadrant detector, and computation time was reduced compared with the traditional method of separately analysing the temperature field of the front dome and rear optical lens using FEA. Thus, the method can effectively increase the efficiency of parameter analysis and computation in an airborne optical system, facilitating the systematic, effective and integrated thermal analysis of airborne optical systems for navigation guidance and control.
Highlights
Recent developments in aircraft technology have focused attention on the airborne optical systems of supersonic aircraft [1,2]
The empirical equations in the temperature field, are investigated based on numeric simulations using the flying and structural parameters of the optical systems used for navigation guidance and control in supersonic aircraft
The influence of structural parameters on thermal diffusion distance were investigated based on Finite element analysis (FEA) and factor experiments to derive the empirical equations for analysing the effects of thermal diffusion on the airborne optical system
Summary
Recent developments in aircraft technology have focused attention on the airborne optical systems of supersonic aircraft [1,2]. The temperature fields of supersonic aircraft in flight are extremely affected by the complexities of the thermal environment, such as environmental temperature, air flow, the aerodynamic heating effect and solar radiation, resulting in internal temperature gradients of the optical system. Both the geometry and performance of airborne optical components are affected [3]. The thermal environment of optical systems, those for navigation guidance and control that require high performance in terms of light spot size and target positioning, must be taken into consideration during design. Xiao et al studied the influences of a non-uniform
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