Effect of solar cell efficiency and flight condition on optimal flight control and energy performance for Z-shaped wing stratospheric solar aircraft

Abstract

The parameters of solar cell efficiency, flight date of year, latitude and sun elevation angle are important to energy conversion of solar cells, which affect optimal flight control and energy performance of Z-shaped solar aircraft. This work is mainly focusing on studying the effect of varying these parameters on optimum attitude planning, optimum wing morphing control and maximum net energy input for Z-shaped solar aircraft. This study shows that, with higher solar cell efficiency, the solar aircraft prefers to more daylight hours configured as Z-shaped wing, larger morphing angle and larger angle between projection of sunlight and wingspan axis, which enhances to achieve more net power input. For the middle and high latitudes in winter with low sun elevation angles, the Z-shaped solar aircraft tends to large morphing angles and small angles between projection of sunlight and wingspan axis. For the low and middle latitudes of the other seasons with high sun elevation angles, it prefers to small morphing angles to make its central wing totally expose to the sunlight, and orient flight attitude to make the projection of sunlight coincide with wingspan axis. Moreover, the research on the impact of solar cell efficiency shows that, compared with the planar wing, the optimal Z-shaped wing is more effective to improve energy margin and extend perpetual flight days with the same increase of solar cell efficiency. The results can provide valuable engineering reference on optimum wing morphing control and optimum attitude planning for Z-shaped stratospheric solar aircraft.