ALBERT

Description: The desire to achieve orbit-on-demand access to space with rapid turn-around capability and aircraft-like processing operations has given rise to numerous hypersonic aerospace plane design concepts which would take off horizontally from a conventional runway and employ air-breathing scramjet propulsion systems for acceleration to orbital speeds. Most of these air-breathing hypersonic vehicle concepts incorporate an elongated fuselage forebody to act as the aerodynamic compression surface for a scramjet combustor module. This type of airframe-integrated scramjet propulsion system tends to be highly sensitive to inlet conditions and angle-of-attack perturbations. Furthermore, the basic configuration of the fuselage, with its elongated and tapered forebody, produces relatively low frequency elastic modes which will cause perturbations in the combustor inlet conditions due to the oscillation of the forebody compression surface. The flexibility of the forebody compression surface, together with sensitivity of scramjet propulsion systems to inlet conditions, creates the potential for an unprecedented form of aeroelastic-propulsive interaction in which deflections of the vehicle fuselage give rise to propulsion transients, producing force and moment variations that may adversely impact the longitudinal flight dynamics and/or excite the elastic modes. These propulsive force and moment variations may have an appreciable impact on the performance, guidance, and control of a hypersonic aerospace plane. The objectives of this research are to quantify the magnitudes of propulsive force and moment perturbations resulting from elastic deformation of a representative hypersonic vehicle, and to assess the potential impact of these perturbations on the vehicle's longitudinal flight dynamics.

Description: Hypersonic vehicle control law development using H(infinity) and mu-synthesis is discussed. Airbreathing SSTO vehicles has a mutli-faceted mission that includes orbital operations, as well as re-entry and descent culminating in horizontal landing. However, the most challenging part of the operations is the ascent to orbit. The airbreathing propulsion requires lengthy atmospheric flight that may last as long as 30 minutes and take the vehicle half way around the globe. The vehicles's ascent is characterized by tight payload to orbit margins which translate into minimum fuel orbit as the performance criteria. Issues discussed include: SSTO airbreathing vehicle issues; control system performance requirements; robust control law framework; H(infinity) controller frequency analysis; and mu controller frequency analysis.

Description: A study was conducted to evaluate the potential effectiveness of a moveable cowl-trailing-edge design for airbreathing hypersonic single-stage-to-orbit (SSTO) configurations, which can be extended or deflected from the nominal position in order to provide additional pitching moment capability. This additional pitching moment capability may reduce the necessary deflection angle from conventional control surfaces and the associated trim drag penalty. Calculations for a generic SSTO configuration with baseline and modified cowl trailing edge geometries were performed at Mach 6 and 10 initially with an engineering analysis code in order to examine several design parametrics. In order to more accurately model geometries and flow physics, 2-D viscous computational fluid dynamics (CFD) predictions were obtained. FInally, a limited set of 3D CFD predictions were obtained at Mach 6 in order to show the effects of modeling 3D flow fields as well as the full 3D vehicle geometry. Comparisons of aftbody surface pressures and force and moment predictions show differences between initial predictions and 2-D CFD solutions due to geometry modeling and calculation method differences. The 3-D CFD predictions confirm the trends observed in the 2-D solutions and provide additional information on 3D effects. These analyses shows that cowl-trailing-edge extensions were effective in providing additional (nose-down) pitching moment increments as well as increased thrust compared to the baseline geometry. These effects reduce the control surface deflection angle required to trim the vehicle and the associated trim drag. Cowl-trailingedge deflections were not as effective, generating more nose-up pitching moment and decreased thrust compared to non-deflected cases.

Description: An atmospheric disturbance model (ADM) is developed that considers the requirements of advanced aerospace vehicles and balances algorithmic assumptions with computational constraints. The requirements for an ADM include a realistic power spectrum, inhomogeneity, and the cross-correlation of atmospheric effects. The baseline models examined include the Global Reference Atmospheric Model Perturbation-Modeling Technique, the Dryden Small-Scale Turbulence Description, and the Patchiness Model. The Program to Enhance Random Turbulence (PERT) is developed based on the previous models but includes a revised formulation of large-scale atmospheric disturbance, an inhomogeneous Dryden filter, turbulence statistics, and the cross-correlation between Dryden Turbulence Filters and small-scale thermodynamics. Verification with the Monte Carlo approach demonstrates that the PERT software provides effective simulations of inhomogeneous atmospheric parameters.

Description: The control system design for a Single Stage To Orbit (SSTO) air breathing vehicle will be central to a successful mission because a precise ascent trajectory will preserve narrow payload margins. The air breathing propulsion system requires the vehicle to fly roughly halfway around the Earth through atmospheric turbulence. The turbulence, the high sensitivity of the propulsion system to inlet flow conditions, the relatively large uncertainty of the parameters characterizing the vehicle, and continuous acceleration make the problem especially challenging. Adequate stability margins must be provided without sacrificing payload mass since payload margins are critical. Therefore, a multivariable control theory capable of explicitly including both uncertainty and performance is needed. The H(infinity) controller in general provides good robustness but can result in conservative solutions for practical problems involving structured uncertainty. Structured singular value mu framework for analysis and synthesis is potentially much less conservative and hence more appropriate for problems with tight margins. An SSTO control system requires: highly accurate tracking of velocity and altitude commands while limiting angle-of-attack oscillations, minimized control power usage, and a stabilized vehicle when atmospheric turbulence and system uncertainty are present. The controller designs using H(infinity) and mu-synthesis procedures were compared. An integrated flight/propulsion dynamic mathematical model of a conical accelerator vehicle was linearized as the vehicle accelerated through Mach 8. Vehicle acceleration through the selected flight condition gives rise to parametric variation that was modeled as a structured uncertainty. The mu-analysis approach was used in the frequency domain to conduct controller analysis and was confirmed by time history plots. Results demonstrate the inherent advantages of the mu framework for this class of problems.

Description: Many air-breathing hypersonic aerospacecraft design concepts incorporate an elongated fuselage forebody acting as the aerodynamic compression surface for a hypersonic combustion module, or scram jet. This highly integrated design approach creates the potential for an unprecedented form of aero-propulsive-elastic interaction in which deflections of the vehicle fuselage give rise to propulsion transients, producing force and moment variations that may adversely impact the rigid body flight dynamics and/or further excite the fuselage bending modes. To investigate the potential for such interactions, a math model was developed which included the longitudinal flight dynamics, propulsion system, and first seven elastic modes of a hypersonic air-breathing vehicle. Perturbation time histories from a simulation incorporating this math model are presented that quantify the propulsive force and moment variations resulting from aeroelastic vehicle deflections. Root locus plots are presented to illustrate the effect of feeding the propulsive perturbations back into the aeroelastic model. A concluding section summarizes the implications of the observed effects for highly integrated hypersonic air-breathing vehicle concepts.

Description: An interactive FORTRAN computer comparison program designed to automatically locate regions of incongruity between two databases is described. The software, guided by user input parameters, incrementally compares the databases and generates plots of these regions in the databases which do not compare within a specified tolerance. Additionally, tools are provided within the software which enable the user to statistically reduce the number of data points in the databases compared. To facilitate the description of these tools, the procedures used to compare two aerodynamic databases for an F-18A fighter aircraft are detailed.

Description: Aerodynamic, propulsion, and mass models for a generic, horizontal-takeoff, single-stage-to-orbit (SSTO) configuration are presented which are suitable for use in point mass as well as batch and real-time six degree-of-freedom simulations. The simulations can be used to investigate ascent performance issues and to allow research, refinement, and evaluation of integrated guidance/flight/propulsion/thermal control systems, design concepts, and methodologies for SSTO missions. Aerodynamic force and moment coefficients are given as functions of angle of attack, Mach number, and control surface deflections. The model data were estimated by using a subsonic/supersonic panel code and a hypersonic local surface inclination code. Thrust coefficient and engine specific impulse were estimated using a two-dimensional forebody, inlet, nozzle code and a one-dimensional combustor code and are given as functions of Mach number, dynamic pressure, and fuel equivalence ratio. Rigid-body mass moments of inertia and center of gravity location are functions of vehicle weight which is in turn a function of fuel flow.

Description: An independent twelve degree-of-freedom simulation of the X-43A separation trajectory was created with the Program to Optimize Simulated trajectories (POST II). This simulation modeled the multi-body dynamics of the X-43A and its booster and included the effect of two pyrotechnically actuated pistons used to push the vehicles apart as well as aerodynamic interaction forces and moments between the two vehicles. The simulation was developed to validate trajectory studies conducted with a 14 degree-of-freedom simulation created early in the program using the Automatic Dynamic Analysis of Mechanics Systems (ADAMS) simulation software. The POST simulation was less detailed than the official ADAMS-based simulation used by the Project, but was simpler, more concise and ran faster, while providing similar results. The increase in speed provided by the POST simulation provided the Project with an alternate analysis tool. This tool was ideal for performing separation control logic trade studies that required the running of numerous Monte Carlo trajectories.

Description: The development of any super/hypersonic aircraft requires the interaction of a wide variety of technical disciplines to maximize vehicle performance. For flight and engine control system design and development on this class of vehicle, realistic mathematical simulation models of atmospheric turbulence, including winds and the varying thermodynamic properties of the atmosphere, are needed. A model which has been tentatively selected by a government/industry group of flight and engine/inlet controls representatives working on the High Speed Civil Transport is one based on the Kolmogorov spectrum function. This report compares the Dryden and Kolmogorov turbulence forms, and describes enhancements that add functionality to the selected Kolmogorov model. These added features are: an altitude variation of the eddy dissipation rate based on Dryden data, the mapping of the eddy dissipation rate database onto a regular latitude and longitude grid, a method to account for flight at large vehicle attitude angles, and a procedure for transitioning smoothly across turbulence segments.