High-altitude Long-endurance Aircraft Research Articles

Analysis of Structural Characteristics of the HALE Joined‐Wing Configuration UAV

This study focuses on a high‐altitude long‐endurance (HALE) joined‐wing configuration UAV and completes a preliminary structural design based on aircraft design indices and the fundamental principles of aircraft structure design. Based on the preliminary structural design scheme and aerodynamic shape, a structural finite element model and a vortex lattice aerodynamic analysis model of the UAV are established, and the aerodynamic loads in typical states are obtained. The aerodynamic loads of the UAV are applied to a finite element model using the multipoint row method, and the structural static characteristics are obtained. The study further explores typical structural dynamic characteristics, including natural mode, static aeroelastic, flutter, and gust response characteristics. A comparison with the structural characteristics of a conventional configuration UAV with the same structural weight reveals that the HALE joined‐wing configuration UAV exhibits significant advantages in structural stiffness, mode characteristics, flutter characteristics, and static aeroelastic characteristics, whereas the gust response characteristics are essentially equivalent to those of the conventional configuration. This superiority can be attributed to the reduced wingspan while providing the same lift and effective support effect of the rear wing on the front (Frt) wings, which enhances the structural stiffness of high‐aspect‐ratio HALE UAVs. This configuration is particularly suitable for deployment in high‐subsonic HALE configurations that require close coordination with conventional tactical aircraft. By comparing with the structural characteristics of the conventional configuration UAV with equal structural weight, the paper comprehensively analyzes the structural characteristics of the HALE joined‐wing configuration and obtains the advantages and disadvantages of applying the joined‐wing configuration in HALE aircraft and defines the design direction, which lays a solid foundation for the engineering application in the next stage.

Nonlinear Dynamic Analysis Framework for Slender Structures Using the Modal Rotation Method

Abstract Owing to their low induced drag, high-aspect-ratio wings are often applied to aircraft, particularly high-altitude long-endurance (HALE) aircraft. An analytical method that considers geometrical nonlinearity is necessary for the analysis of high-aspect-ratio wings as they tend to undergo large deformations. Nonlinear shell/plate or solid finite element methods are widely used for the static analysis of wing strength. However, an increase in the number of elements drastically increases the computational costs owing to the complexity of wing shapes. The modal rotation method (MRM) can avoid this additional expense by analyzing large deformations based on modes and stiffness matrices obtained from any linear or linearized model. However, MRM has only been formulated as a static analysis method. In this study, a novel modal-based dynamic analysis framework, referred to as dynamic MRM (DMRM), is developed to analyze slender cantilever structures. This paper proposes a method to discretize dynamics by capitalizing on the fact that MRM considers geometrical nonlinearity based on deformed shapes. The proposed method targets slender structures with small strains and large displacements and considers geometrical nonlinearity, but not material nonlinearity. Additionally, a formulation method for the work performed by a follower force is proposed. The energy stored in the structure agreed with the work performed by an external force in each performed simulation. DMRM achieved a 95% reduction in the calculation time compared with a nonlinear plate finite element method in a performed simulation.

Adaptive dynamic programming base on MMC device of a flexible high-altitude long endurance aircraft

Flexible high-altitude long endurance (HALE) aircraft face challenges such as the delay effect caused by aeroelasticity and low efficiency during high-altitude cruising. This paper addresses a new active control scheme that replaces traditional aerodynamic control surfaces with longitudinal and lateral moving masses and adopts an observer-based adaptive dynamic programming (ADP) control strategy, aiming to solve the attitude control of HALE aircraft with flexible wings. Firstly, considering the account of unsteady aerodynamics, attitude angular velocity, and moving masses, complete dynamic model is established for a flexible aircraft, in order to more accurately describe the state of the HALE aircraft. This model includes two moving masses to replace traditional ailerons and elevators. It is difficult to design attitude control strategies considering the delay effects and unknown dynamic disturbances of HALE aircraft. To this end, the actor-critic structure of the ADP approach is designed to achieve the near-optimal control strategy of the system, which eliminates the need for prior knowledge of model parameters. A fixed time disturbance observer (FTDO) is proposed to estimate the future tracking error information and unknown disturbances to improve the control performance of the attitude. Finally, the stability of the system is proved via the Lyapunov technique and a comprehensive simulation of HALE aircraft is provided. The simulation results show that the proposed control algorithm can enable the aircraft attitude angles to quickly response and maintain stability under gust wind. Compared with a single ADP control strategy, this paper's algorithm has advantages in response speed and error.

On the use of frictional dampers for flutter mitigation of a highly flexible wing

The prospect of aeroelastic instability, leading to large-amplitude limit cycle oscillations, is of particular concern for the highly flexible wings of solar high-altitude long-endurance (HALE) aircraft. Among the different strategies of vibration control, passive mitigation through friction dampers stands out as a promising solution in this context. While this concept has been proposed previously, related studies systematically use simple two-degrees-of-freedom airfoil models. In this paper, a more realistic structural model involving a three-dimensional nonlinear beam description of a full wing is considered. A friction damper is installed at a specific location on the wing span, and the response to aerodynamic loads is investigated numerically. Comparisons of critical speed and limit cycle amplitudes with and without the damper suggest improved vibration mitigation with respect to a linear viscous damper.

Effects of Reynolds number and solidity ratio on advection dominated mixing in a high-altitude instrument

Due to the role of ClO and BrO in the rate-limiting step of the catalytic cycles enabling ozone loss, measurement of concentrations of these halogen molecules is of critical importance to understanding the loss rate of ozone in the stratosphere. A key advantage of in situ measurements is that these rate-limiting molecules can be observed simultaneously with ozone in the same volume element of the stratosphere, with high spatial and temporal resolution. Historically, these in situ measurements were made using instruments on the NASA ER-2 flight platform for a few hours at a time. However, the development and advancement of a high-altitude long-endurance (HALE) solar aircraft has made it possible to monitor these radicals continuously in the stratosphere. The slower flight speeds of the HALE aircraft will greatly improve molecule detection sensitivity and spatial resolution. To ensure proper mixing and accurate measurements, a quantitative dissection of the flow dynamics within the instrument architecture is required. Of particular importance are the turbulent behavior and the boundary layer growth, both of which affect measurement quality. The geometry of the NO injector used for titration is studied as a function of its solidity and the flight airspeed, to understand its effect on turbulence and boundary layer growth. A 3D Computational Fluid Dynamics simulation of an Eulerian mixture model is used to analyze the advection-dominated mixing inside the instrument. The injector inside the instrument is found to act as a flow-conditioning device, with a lower solidity causing the downstream flow to be increasingly turbulent. Additionally, a quantitative relationship between the Reynolds number of the inlet air and the volume fraction of the flow is demonstrated. Analysis of the boundary layer dependencies demonstrates that the boundary layer does not encroach on the optical sensing area in any of the cases.

Aeroelasticity of Flying-Wing Aircraft Subject to Morphing: A Stability Study

In this work, we present a study on the effects of modifications on wing geometric configurations via morphing. Specifically, we investigate the resulting impacts on aeroelastic stability. In the primary analysis presented, we assess a wall-mounted configuration for an airfoil section of a two-dimensional wing. This morphing-wing system comprises a torsional spring at the trailing-edge flap hinge, which induces the morphing phenomenon. The behavior of this system is studied within the context of divergence and reversal. The analysis following this examines a highly flexible flying-wing configuration, subject to a transient morphing scheme. The geometries corresponding to the unmorphed and morphed configurations are acquired from a physical morphing trailing-edge wing prototype, and the structural modeling and cross-sectional properties are obtained using the Gmsh tool and variational asymptotic beam sectional analysis. Furthermore, we evaluate the effects of the geometric variations on the aeroelastic stability through leveraging the computer program, NATASHA (which stands for nonlinear aeroelastic trim and stability analysis of high-altitude long-endurance aircraft). The results obtained from this analysis insinuate the favorable impact on the aeroelastic stability of the system, namely, in terms of flutter characteristics.

Nonlinear aeroelastic analysis of a HALE aircraft with flexible components

In this study, a full HALE (high altitude, long endurance) aircraft, nonlinear, aeroelastic analysis is being performed. Nonlinear, general, flexible, Euler–Bernoulli beam equations are being used to model the wings and the tails, and the linear, Euler–Bernoulli beam equation is used to model the fuselage. A unified formulation for modeling flexible components dynamics based on kinetic energy coupling is also being employed to model the behavior of fully flexible aircrafts. Aerodynamic forces and moments on the wings and horizontal tails are modeled based on the Wagner's function and the Jones approximation. The results of flutter properties and nonlinear time response of the limit cycle oscillations are validated. The time response, the flutter boundary, the post flutter limit cycle oscillations of wings and tails, and the vibration behavior of the fuselage are investigated, and the effect of the fuselage rigidity on the system behavior is examined. The results show that to accurately predict the aeroelastic behavior, a full aircraft analysis is necessary, especially when the amount of the bending and the torsional rigidity of the fuselage is close to the amounts of the wings and tails.

Experimental investigation on stall flutter over a vertically mounted rigid finite wing

As stall flutter has relevant engineering implications, such as in blades of wind turbine and HALE (highaltitude long-endurance aircraft). This work presents the experimental investigation of rigid wing setup in a closed-circuit wind tunnel having 2.1 m × 1.5 m test section. The experimental campaign reached stable and symmetrical LCO within the freestream range from 9 m/s up to 14 m/s (1.69 × 105 < Re < 2.63 × 105 ). Two techniques were used for position tracking: one mechatronic and one image-based. The latter used ‘shakethe-box’ method applied to a body, which has proven a successful approach as a non-intrusive tool.

Mission-oriented cooperative 3D path planning for modular solar-powered aircraft with energy optimization

Modular Solar-Powered Aircraft (M-SPA) is a kind of High-Altitude Long-Endurance (HALE) aircraft which exploits the mission advantage of swarm UAV and the HALE advantage of large aspect-ratio SPA. M-SPA’s separated mode and combined mode give it the potential to maximize the mission efficiency with limited solar energy. In this paper, firstly, oriented by the mission of maximizing the cruise area, the overall design of the M-SPA is modeled, including the energy model, the aerodynamic model and the flight environment settings. Secondly, by analyzing the energy consumption of the flight modes, we design a multi-phase flight mission strategy. Then, a 24-hour three-dimensional (3D) flight profile of the M-SPA is optimized, including the sub-SPA cooperative path planning in the separation mode. Finally, inspired by the Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP), an improved Ant Colony Algorithm (ACA) is exploited to find the optimal path for each sub-SPA, which is further developed into a dynamic separation and combination scheme for the M-SPA. The simulation results show that the mission performance of the M-SPA outperforms that of the conventional SPA, and explicitly, the mission coverage of the M-SPA is slightly less than a linear increase under comparable simulation conditions.

Modal-Based Nonlinear Model Predictive Control for 3-D Very Flexible Structures

In this article a novel nonlinear model predictive control (NMPC) scheme is derived, which is tailored to the underlying structure of the intrinsic description of geometrically exact nonlinear beams (in which velocities and strains are primary variables). This is an important class of partial differential equation (PDE) models whose behavior is fundamental to the performance of flexible structural systems (e.g., wind turbines, high-altitude long-endurance aircraft). Furthermore, this class contains the much-studied Euler–Bernoulli and Timoshenko beam models, but has significant additional complexity (to capture 3-D effects and arbitrarily large displacements) and requires explicit computation of rotations in the PDE dynamics to account for orientation-dependent forces. A challenge presented by this formulation is that uncontrollable modes necessarily appear in any finite dimensional approximation to the PDE dynamics. We show, however, that an NMPC scheme can be constructed in which the error introduced by the uncontrollable modes can be explicitly controlled. It is demonstrated that the asymptotic error can be made insignificant (from a practical perspective) using our NMPC scheme and excellent performance is obtained even when applied to a highly resolved numerical simulation of the PDEs. We also present a generalization of Kelvin–Voigt damping to the intrinsic description of geometrically exact beams. Finally, special emphasis is placed on constructing a framework suitable for real-time NMPC control, where the particular structure of the underlying PDEs is exploited to obtain both efficient finite-dimensional models and numerical schemes.

Gas Turbine/Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Hybrids for Aircraft Propulsion and Power

The impact on range and endurance of increasing electrical loads on aircraft and burgeoning interest in all-electric aircraft are driving a need for more efficient replacements for engine-driven mechanical generators. This Paper presents a model of a synergistic gas turbine/solid oxide fuel cell system for combined propulsion and electrical power on aircraft. It is developed using Numerical Propulsion System Simulation and features realistic representations of the engine, reformer (a catalytic partial oxidation reactor), solid oxide fuel cell, and external aerodynamic losses. The results show that incorporating the reformer and fuel cell directly into the engine’s flowpath reduces vehicle-level fuel consumption of a high-altitude long-endurance aircraft at cruise by at least 8% when the engine is mounted inside the fuselage and at least 4% when the engine is installed within a nacelle. It also increases electrical generation capability by factors of 2 or more versus engine-driven mechanical generators in several aircraft applications. The main limitation in nacelle-mounted applications is increased external aerodynamic drag associated with the protrusion of the fuel cell into the flow around the engine, but it is shown that this can be mitigated through tight integration with high-pressure-ratio engines and careful flowpath design.

Propeller Effects on the Response of High-Altitude Long-Endurance Aircraft

An enhanced nonlinear aeroelastic-coupled-flight dynamics framework that enables the investigation of propeller aerodynamics and inertial effects on the response of a very flexible aircraft is presented, verified and used to investigate the propeller effects on the aeroelastic response of a very flexible aircraft. The developed framework couples a geometrically nonlinear structural solver with an unsteady vortex lattice method for lifting surfaces and a viscous vortex particle for propeller slipstream. Propeller gyroscopic moment and viscous drag estimation for unsteady vortex lattice method are also included. For the study case considered, the University of Michigan’s X-HALE unmanned aerial vehicle model, results indicate that the influence of propeller is more pronounced for free-flight cases and in clamped cases involving torsional excitation.

Dizajn optimalne elise za buduću bespilotnu letelicu za velike visine i duge istrajnosti

The main roles of unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) include: observation, surveillance, transportation, remote sensing and various security tasks. Improved, augmented type of UAVs are high-altitude long-endurance (HALE) aircraft capable and designed, as their name suggests, for lengthy flights at higher altitudes (which also usually implies subsonic cruising velocities). Different variants, in both size and applied technical solutions, have been tried. Common approach incorporates standard wing-fuselage-aft empennage configuration and propelled flight as the most efficient for the required speed range. The paper gives a brief overview of a preliminary aerodynamic analysis of the main lifting surfaces as well as a detailed description of the performed multi-objective optimization of the propeller capable of producing a sufficient amount of thrust at the cruising altitude and speed. Aerodynamic performances of the investigated propellers are estimated by a simple blade element momentum theory (BEMT). The chosen optimizing method, genetic algorithm (GA), is suitable for dealing with a large number of input variables.

Procedure for Determining Operation Limits of High-Altitude Long-Endurance Aircraft Under Icing Conditions

To ensure flight safety and expand the availability of high-altitude long-endurance aircraft, the present study suggests a novel procedure for determining mission success or failure under icing conditions. First, the ice accretion shapes during the climbing stage are predicted under icing conditions using the one-shot method. Then, the total ice mass on the high-altitude long-endurance aircraft surface and the resulting aerodynamic performance is numerically calculated. Subsequently, metamodels are constructed to correlate meteorological parameters and aerodynamic performance. Finally, the total required power to reach the mission altitude is compared with the onboard battery capacity to make a quantitative judgment about mission success. The proposed procedure is applied to the , with a maximum takeoff weight of 20 kg, developed by Korea Aerospace Research Institute. The results show that, when the liquid water content is and median volumetric droplet diameter is below , the battery margin falls below 10%, implying that particular attention is required when operating the aircraft under those meteorological conditions. Second, when using the one-shot method to predict ice shapes, the flight speed of aircraft and air density should be taken at a midpoint altitude between the ground and the highest altitude at which droplets exist. Finally, due to the low flight speed of aircraft, only a small number of water droplets adhere to the surface, and there is little convective heat transfer, resulting in rime ice shapes even at high temperatures.

Aerofoil Design for Unmanned High-Altitude Aft-Swept Flying Wings

In this paper, 12 new aerofoils with varying thicknesses for an aft-swept flying wing unmanned air vehicle have been designed using a MATLAB tool which has been developed in-house. The tool consists of 2 parts in addition to the aerodynamic solver XFOIL. The first part generates the aerofoil section geometry using a combination of PARSEC and Bezier-curve parameterisation functions. PARSEC parametrisation has been used to represent the camber line while the Bezier-curve has been used to select the thickness distribution. This combination is quite efficient in using an optimisation search process because of the capability to define a range of design variables that can quickly generate a suitable aerofoil. The second part contains the optimisation code using a genetic algorithm. The primary target here was to design a number of aerofoils with low pitching moment, suitable for an aft-swept flying wing configuration operating at low Reynolds number in the range of about 0.5 million. Three optimisation targets were set to achieve maximum aerodynamic performance characteristics. Each individual target was run separately to design several aerofoils of different thicknesses that meet the target criteria. According to the set of result obtained so far, the initial observation of the aerodynamic performance of the newly designed aerofoils is that the lift/drag ratio in general is higher than that of the existing ones used in many current-generation highaltitude long-endurance aircraft. Another observation is that increasing the maximum thickness of the aerofoil leads to a decrease in the maximum lift/drag ratio. In addition, as expected, this ratio sharply drops after the maximum value of some of these aerofoils.

Design and integration sensitivity of a morphing trailing edge on a reference airfoil: The effect on high-altitude long-endurance aircraft performance

Trailing edge modification is one of the most effective ways to achieve camber variations. Usual flaps and aileron implement this concept and allow facing the different needs related to take-off, landing, and maneuver operations. The extension of this idea to meet other necessities, less dramatic in terms of geometry change yet useful a lot to increase the aircraft performance, moves toward the so-called morphing architectures, a compact version of the formers and inserted within the frame of the smart structures’ design philosophy. Mechanic (whether compliant or kinematic), actuation and sensor systems, together with all the other devices necessary for its proper working, are embedded into the body envelope. After the successful experiences, gained inside the SARISTU (SmARt Intelligent Aircraft STrUctures) project where an adaptive trailing edge was developed with the aim of compensating the weight variations in a medium-size commercial aircraft (for instance, occurring during cruise), the team herein exploits the defined architecture in the wing of a typical airfoil, used on high-altitude long-endurance aircraft such as the Global Hawk. Among the peculiarities of this kind of aerial vehicle, there is the long endurance, in turn, associated with a massive fuel storage (approximately around 50% of the total weight). A segmented, finger-like, rib layout is considered to physically implement the transition from the baseline airfoil to the target configurations. This article deals with an extensive estimation of the possible benefits related to the implementation of this device on that class of planes. Parametric aerodynamic analyses are performed to evaluate the effects of different architectural layouts (in-plane geometry extension) and different shape envelopes (namely, the rotation boundaries). Finally, the expected improvements in the global high-altitude long-endurance aircraft performance are evaluated, following the implementation of the referred morphing device.

Effect of Inertial and Constitutive Properties on Body-Freedom Flutter for Flying Wings

The class of high-altitude long-endurance aircraft often has very slender wings with minimal structure. This leads to large trim deflections and coupling between the vehicle flight dynamics and wing vibrations. When this coupled behavior becomes unstable, it is referred to as body-freedom flutter. Body-freedom flutter behavior is dependent on the inertial and constitutive properties of the wing, as well as the fuselage. This relationship is explored for an aircraft representative of the Horten IV flying wing, using an efficient yet rigorous analysis that relies on geometrically exact, fully intrinsic beam equations and a finite-state induced flow model, which is implemented in the computer code NATASHA (which stands for nonlinear aeroelastic trim and stability of high-altitude long-endurance aircraft). The wing inertial and stiffness properties were calculated using a realistic representative section using the section analysis tool called variational asymptotic beam section analysis. Trade studies on the body-freedom flutter behavior were performed by varying the fuselage properties and the internal wing structure, as well as examining the effects on the flutter speed, flutter frequency, and flutter mode shape.

선형 등가모델을 이용한 유연날개 구조해석

Aircraft needs high lift-to-drag ratio and weight reduction of the structure for long endurance flight with a small power. Generally high aspect ratio wing is applied to HALE(High Altitude Long Endurance) aircraft. Also high modulus, and high strength CFRP(Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic) has been used in primary structures. and thin mylar(membrane material) film has been applied to skin of wing. As a result, wing is more flexible than the other structures. and the stiffness of thin mylar film has an affect on dynamic stability. In this study, the membrane characteristic of mylar film has been simulated using nonlinear gap elements. And equivalent modeling method using shell elements is presented using the nonlinear simulation result. The linear equivalent model has verified using the results of nonlinear membrane method. Proposed linear equivalent shell model has applied to mode analysis for estimate the effect of mylar mechanical properties on natural frequency.

Preliminary flight test correlations of the X-HALE aeroelastic experiment

AbstractAn experimental, remotely-piloted aircraft has been designed and fabricated at University of Michigan that is aeroelastically representative of very flexible aircraft. Known as X-HALE, this Experimental High-Altitude Long-Endurance aircraft exhibits geometrically nonlinear behaviour and displays specific aeroelastic characteristics designed into the experiment. This paper presents the data from the initial flight tests of the lightly instrumented X-HALE Risk Reduction Vehicle that confirm the expected aeroelastic characteristics. This opens the way for future flight tests with a fully-instrumented platform which will provide data to support validation of coupled, nonlinear aeroelastic/flight dynamic codes.

On the Importance of Nonlinear Aeroelasticity and Energy Efficiency in Design of Flying Wing Aircraft

Energy efficiency plays important role in aeroelastic design of flying wing aircraft and may be attained by use of lightweight structures as well as solar energy. NATASHA (Nonlinear Aeroelastic Trim And Stability of HALE Aircraft) is a newly developed computer program which uses a nonlinear composite beam theory that eliminates the difficulties in aeroelastic simulations of flexible high-aspect-ratio wings which undergoes large deformation, as well as the singularities due to finite rotations. NATASHA has shown that proper engine placement could significantly increase the aeroelastic flight envelope which typically leads to more flexible and lighter aircraft. The areas of minimum kinetic energy for the lower frequency modes are in accordance with the zones with maximum flutter speed and have the potential to save computational effort. Another aspect of energy efficiency for High Altitude, Long Endurance (HALE) drones stems from needing to minimize energy consumption because of limitations on the source of energy, that is, solar power. NATASHA is capable of simulating the aeroelastic passive morphing maneuver (i.e., morphing without relying on actuators) and at as near zero energy cost as possible of the aircraft so as the solar panels installed on the wing are in maximum exposure to sun during different time of the day.