Multipoint optimization on fuel efficiency in conceptual design of wide-body aircraft

Aircraft conceptual design optimizations that maximize the performance at a design condition （single-point） may result in designs with unsatisfying off-design performance. To further improve aircraft efficiency under actual flight operations, there is a need to consider multiple flight conditions （multipoint） in aircraft conceptual design and optimization. A new strategy for multipoint optimizations in aircraft conceptual design is proposed in this paper. A wide-body aircraft is taken as an example for both single-point and multipoint optimizations with the objective of maximizing the specific hourly productivity. Boeing 787-8 flight data was used in the multipoint opti- mization to reflect the true objective function. The results show that the optimal design from the multipoint optimization has a 7.72% total specific hourly productivity increase of entire flight missions compared with that of the baseline aircraft, while the increase in the total specific hourly productivity from the single-point optimal design is only 5.73%. The differences between the results of single-point and multipoint optimizations indicate that there is a good option to further improve aircraft efficiency by considering actual flight conditions in aircraft conceptual design and optimization.

Refined Aerodynamic Test of Wide-Bodied Aircraft and Its Application

The large dual-channel wide-bodied aircraft has a long range and a high cruise Mach number.Therefore,its aerodynamic design requires a high level ofwind tunnel test refinement.Based on the requirements of aerodynamic design for the future wide-bodied aircraft and the characteristics of high-speed wind tunnel tests,the error theory is introduced to analyze the factors affecting the accuracy of the test data.This study carries out a series of research on the improvement of refined aerodynamic test technology in an FL-26 wind tunnel,including design and optimization of the support system of wide-bodied aircraft,model attitude angle measurement,Mach number control accuracy,measurement and control system stability,test data correction and perfection,high-precision force balance and standard model development.In addition,the effect of the standard specification of the refined aerodynamic test is investigated to improve the data quality.The research findings have been applied in the standard model test and subsequent models of wide-bodied aircraft.The results show that whenMach numbers are less than 0.9,the control accuracy of Mach numbers in the FL-26 wind tunnel is smaller than 0.001 and the measurement error of attack angle is smaller than 0.01°.Therefore,it has the ability to correct the data influenced by factors,such as support/wall interference,model deformation,floating resistance and airflow deflection angle.The repeatability accuracy of the standard model’s comparison test shows that the lift coefficient is less than or equal to 0.0012,the drag coefficient is less than or equal to 0.00004,pitching moment coefficient is less than or equal to 0.0004.The bending resolution of the model’s deformation measurement is less than 0.2 mm,and the tensional deformation is smaller than 0.04°.The revised aerodynamic data and model deformation measurement results have good agreement with that of the ETW wind tunnel.The results demonstrate that the improved technology presented in this paper can significantly enhance the refined aerodynamic test of wide-bodied aircraft.

The Contribution of United States Aircraft Reconnaissance Data to the China Meteorological Administration Tropical Cyclone Intensity Data:An Evaluation of Homogeneity

This paper investigates the homogeneity of United States aircraft reconnaissance data and the impact of these data on the homogeneity of the tropical cyclone(TC)best track data for the seasons 1949-1987 generated by the China Meteorological Administration(CMA).The evaluation of the reconnaissance data shows that the minimum central sea level pressure(MCP)data are relatively homogeneous,whereas the maximum sustained wind(MSW)data show both overestimations and spurious abrupt changes.Statistical comparisons suggest that both the reconnaissance MCP and MSW were well incorporated into the CMA TC best track dataset.Although no spurious abrupt changes were evident in the reconnaissance-related best track MCP data,two spurious changepoints were identified in the remainder of the best-track MCP data.Furthermore,the influence of the reconnaissance MSWs seems to extend to the best track MSWs unrelated to reconnaissance,which might reflect the optimistic confidence in making higher estimates due to the overestimated extreme wind“observations”.In addition,the overestimation of either the reconnaissance MSWs or the best track MSWs was greater during the early decades compared to later decades,which reflects the important influence of reconnaissance data on the CMA TC best track dataset.The wind-pressure relationship(WPR)used in the CMA TC best track dataset is also evaluated and is found to overestimate the MSW,which may lead to inhomogeneity within the dataset between the aircraft reconnaissance era and the satellite era.

Asbestos Exposure during Gasket Removal from Aircraft Engine

We have previously evaluated asbestos exposure associated with various maintenance procedures on light aircraft. The purpose of this study was to evaluate asbestos exposure during engine maintenance on light aircraft. This test was designed to evaluate the potential for asbestos exposure to mechanics and others who remove asbestos-containing engine gaskets from reciprocating style aircraft engines. Utilized in this test was an air cooled, horizontally opposed, aviation gasoline burning engine, assembled during 1986 and operated intermittently up into 2015, having accumulated 1680 hours run time. Nearly 75% of the asbestos-containing gaskets installed during 1986 were still in place at the time of testing. Chrysotile asbestos contents of such gaskets ranged from 55% to 60% by area, for those of sheet style and 5% by area, for the spiral wound metal/asbestos style. Despite the levels of effort required to effect gasket removals, the professional aircraft mechanic was not exposed to airborne asbestos fibers at the lower limits of sampling and analytical detection achieved;all of which were substantially less than the current Occupational Safety and Health Administration Permissible Exposure Limits for asbestos. The results of this testing indicate an absence of gasket related asbestos exposure risk to mechanics who work with light aircraft engines, including those having asbestos-containing gaskets. These results are consistent with the findings of Mlyarek and Van Orden who studied the asbestos exposure risk occasioned during overhaul of larger radial style reciprocating aircraft engines [1].

Review on uncertainty analysis and information fusion diagnosis of aircraft control system

In the aircraft control system,sensor networks are used to sample the attitude and environmental data.As a result of the external and internal factors(e.g.,environmental and task complexity,inaccurate sensing and complex structure),the aircraft control system contains several uncertainties,such as imprecision,incompleteness,redundancy and randomness.The information fusion technology is usually used to solve the uncertainty issue,thus improving the sampled data reliability,which can further effectively increase the performance of the fault diagnosis decision-making in the aircraft control system.In this work,we first analyze the uncertainties in the aircraft control system,and also compare different uncertainty quantitative methods.Since the information fusion can eliminate the effects of the uncertainties,it is widely used in the fault diagnosis.Thus,this paper summarizes the recent work in this aera.Furthermore,we analyze the application of information fusion methods in the fault diagnosis of the aircraft control system.Finally,this work identifies existing problems in the use of information fusion for diagnosis and outlines future trends.

Linear-quadratic and norm-bounded combined differential game guidance scheme with obstacle avoidance for attacking defended aircraft in three-player engagement OA

A differential game guidance scheme with obstacle avoidance,based on the formulation of a combined linear quadratic and norm-bounded differential game,is designed for a three-player engagement scenario,which includes a pursuer,an interceptor,and an evader.The confrontation between the players is divided into four phases(P1-P4)by introducing the switching time,and proposing different guidance strategies according to the phase where the static obstacle is located:the linear quadratic game method is employed to devise the guidance scheme for the energy optimization when the obstacle is located in the P1 and P3 stages;the norm-bounded differential game guidance strategy is presented to satisfy the acceleration constraint under the circumstance that the obstacle is located in the P2 and P4 phases.Furthermore,the radii of the static obstacle and the interceptor are taken as the design parameters to derive the combined guidance strategy through the dead-zone function,which guarantees that the pursuer avoids the static obstacle,and the interceptor,and attacks the evader.Finally,the nonlinear numerical simulations verify the performance of the game guidance strategy.

Investigation on flight load calibration of aircraft composite wing base on strain gauge measurement

A computational and test method for calibrating the flight loads carried by aircraft wings is proposed.The wing load is measured in real-time based on the resistance and fiber Bragg grating strain gauges.The linear stepwise regression method is used to construct the load equations.The mean impact value algorithm is employed to select suitable bridges.In the ground calibration experiment,the wing load calculation equations in both forward and reverse installation states are calibrated.The correctness of the load equations was verified through equation error and inspection error analysis.Finally,the actual flight load of the wing was obtained through flight tests.

A Two-Stage Scenario-Based Robust Optimization Model and a Column-Row Generation Method for Integrated Aircraft Maintenance-Routing and Crew Rostering

Motivated by a critical issue of airline planning process,this paper addresses a new two-stage scenario-based robust optimization in operational airline planning to cope with uncertainty and possible flight disruptions.Following the route network scheme and generated flight timetables,aircraft maintenance routing and crew scheduling are critical factors in airline planning and operations cost management.This study considers the simultaneous assignment of aircraft fleet and crew to the scheduled flight while satisfying a set of operational constraints,rules,and regulations.Considering multiple locations for airline maintenance and crew bases,we solve the problem of integrated Aircraft Maintenance Routing and Crew Rostering(AMRCR)to achieve the minimum airline cost.One real challenge to the efficiency of the planning results is the possible disruptions in the initial scheduled flights.Due to the fact that disruption scenarios are expressed discretely with a specified probability,and we provide adjustable decisions under disruption to deal with this disruption risk,we provide a Two-Stage Scenario-Based Robust Optimization(TSRO)model.In this model,here-and-now or first-stage variables are the initial resource assignment.Furthermore,to adapt itself to different disruption scenarios,the model considers some adjustable variables,such as the decision to cancel the flight in case of disruption,as wait-and-see or second-stage variables.Considering the complexity of integrated models,and the scenario-based decomposable structure of the TRSO model to solve it with better computational performance,we apply the column and row generation(CRG)method that iteratively considers the disruption scenarios.The numerical results confirm the applicability of the proposed TSRO model in providing the AMRCR problem with an integrated and robust solution with an acceptable level of computational tractability.To evaluate the proposed TSRO model,which solves the AMRCR problem in an integrated and robust manner,five Key Performance Indicators(KPIs)like Number of delayed/canceled flights,Average delay time,and Average profit are taken into account.As key results driven by conducting a case study,we show the proposed TSRO model has substantially improved the solutions at all indicators compared with those of the sequential/non-integrated and nominal/non-robust models.The simulated instances used to assess the performance of the proposed model and CRG method reveal that both CPLEX and the CRG method exhibit comparable and nearly optimal performance for small-scale problems.However,for large-scale instances the proposed TSRO model falls short in terms of computational efficiency.Conversely,the proposed CRG method is capable of significantly reducing computational time and the optimality gap to an acceptable level.

Analysis and Research on Aerodynamic Characteristics of Quad Tilt Rotor Aircraft

For the quad tilt rotor aircraft, a computational fluid dynamics method based on multiple reference frames (MRF) was used to analyze the influence of aerodynamic layout parameters on the aerodynamic characteristics of the quad tilt rotor aircraft. Firstly, a numerical simulation method for the interference flow field of the quad tilt rotor aircraft is established. Based on this method, the aerodynamic characteristics of isolated rotors, rotor combinations at different lateral positions on the wing, and rotor rotation directions under different inflow velocities were calculated and analyzed, in order to grasp their aerodynamic interference laws and provide reference for the design and control theory research of such aircraft.

Assessment of Meteorological Threats to the Coordinated Search and Rescue of Unmanned/Manned Aircraft

The architecture and working principle of coordinated search and rescue system of unmanned/manned aircraft,which is composed of manned/unmanned aircraft and manned aircraft,were first introduced,and they can cooperate with each other to complete a search and rescue task.Secondly,a threat assessment method based on meteorological data was proposed,and potential meteorological threats,such as storms and rainfall,can be predicted by collecting and analyzing meteorological data.Finally,an experiment was carried out to evaluate the performance of the proposed method in different scenarios.The experimental results show that the coordinated search and rescue system of unmanned/manned aircraft can be used to effectively assess meteorological threats and provide accurate search and rescue guidance.

Aerodynamic, Kinematic and Control Coupling Simulation of Aircraft Maneuvering Flight

Aiming at the high angle of attack pull-up and multi-channel roll pull-up coupling problems of high maneuvering aircraft, this paper establishes the flight attitude control rate by means of unsteady flow numerical solution, dynamic unstructured nested mesh assembly method and numerical solution method of flight mechanics equation. On this basis, a virtual flight simulation platform integrating pneumatics, motion and control is established. Based on this virtual flight simulation platform, F-16 aircraft is simulated by high angle of attack pull-up flight mode and multi-channel roll pull-up coupling flight mode. Finally, the influence of rudder on the yaw control channel is investigated. The results show that the numerical virtual flight simulation platform established in this paper has the ability to simulate maneuvering flight of aircraft.

Multi-agent Based Hierarchy Simulation Models of Carrier-based Aircraft Catapult Launch

With the aid of multi-agent based modeling approach to complex systems, the hierarchy simulation models of carrier-based aircraft catapult launch are developed. Ocean, carrier, aircraft, and atmosphere are treated as aggregation agents, the detailed components like catapult, landing gears, and disturbances are considered as meta-agents, which belong to their aggregation agent. Thus, the model with two layers is formed i.e. the aggregation agent layer and the meta-agent layer. The information communication among all agents is described. The meta-agents within one aggregation agent communicate with each other directly by information sharing, but the meta-agents, which belong to different aggregation agents exchange their information through the aggregation layer first, and then perceive it from the sharing environment, that is the aggregation agent. Thus, not only the hierarchy model is built, but also the environment perceived by each agent is specified. Meanwhile, the problem of balancing the independency of agent and the resource consumption brought by real-time communication within multi-agent system （MAS） is resolved. Each agent involved in carrier-based aircraft catapult launch is depicted, with considering the interaction within disturbed atmospheric environment and multiple motion bodies including carrier, aircraft, and landing gears. The models of reactive agents among them are derived based on tensors, and the perceived messages and inner frameworks of each agent are characterized. Finally, some results of a simulation instance are given. The simulation and modeling of dynamic system based on multi-agent system is of benefit to express physical concepts and logical hierarchy clearly and precisely. The system model can easily draw in kinds of other agents to achieve a precise simulation of more complex system. This modeling technique makes the complex integral dynamic equations of multibodies decompose into parallel operations of single agent, and it is convenient to expand, maintain, and reuse the program codes.

GRADE-LIFE PROGNOSTIC MODEL OF AIRCRAFT ENGINE BEARING

Research on practical and verifiable prediction methods for the service life of bearings plays a critical role in improving the reliability and safety of aircraft engines. The concept of grade-life （GL） is introduced to de- scribe the service life of bearings. A GL prognostic model for aircraft engine bearings is proposed based on sup- port vector machine （SVM） and fuzzy logic inference. Firstly, the mathematical model is discussed to predict the physics-based GL （PGL）. Then, the diagnostic estimation model based on SVM is presented in detail to predict the empirical GL （EPL）. Thirdly, a fuzzy logic inference is adopted to fuse two GL predicted results. Finally, the GL prognostic model is verified by the run-to-failure data acquired from an accelerated life test of an aircraft bearing. The results show that the model provides a more practical and reliable prediction for the service life of bearings.

基于MSC Adams/Aircraft的飞机起落架着陆动态性能分析

以某支柱式起落架飞机为原型,在MSCAdams/Aircraft平台上建立起落架及全机虚拟样机模型并进行落震仿真分析、全机着陆仿真分析.全机着陆仿真分析结果与落震仿真分析结果一致性较好,为在MSCAdams软件基础上进行飞机着陆过程虚拟技术研究奠定基础.

TASK EFFECTIVENESS EVALUATION ON ANTI-SHIP ATTACK OF FIGHTER AIRCRAFT

The characteristics of the confrontation between fighters and air-defense systems on ship are analyzed. The approach of simulating operations of both sides is presented based on the combination of random-factor effectiveness simulation models and deterministic models. Two basic indices are proposed to indicate task effectiveness （i. e. the survival probability of the fighter team and the specified effect of damage on the fleet） and relative algo- rithms. To verify the approach, the situation that a fighter team attacks a collective defense fleet is exemplified and the task effectiveness of this case is also calculated. The method for evaluating task effectiveness on anti-ship attack can be applied in aircraft design and tactical research.

Investigation of electrostriction appliance and its applicationfor bionics flapping aircraft

A novel design for an electrostriction appliance derived from the theory and application of electromagnetics is presented. The working principle, that is the application of gravitation and elasticity together to realize the ＂shrinking＂ and ＂extending＂ effect from the distortion and transforming power into mechanical energy, is briefly explained. The characteristic parameter relationships are established and the experimental research is performed. Experimental results show that this sort of electrostriction appliance can perform well as regards driving force and beeline displacement, and furthermore, its self-weight is smaller. This makes it suitable for beeline drivers with a high application value, especially for the driver of the bionic appliance. In the application of the electrostriction appliance to a bionics-flapping aircraft, the wings can work with a flapping angle in the range of a certain value by controlling the ＂shrinking＂ and ＂extending＂ of the electrostriction appliance. It can reduce the startup power and the impact load of the driver. The flapping extent of the wings will change when the voltage which is put into the electrostriction appliance varies. This makes it more flexible as the bionics-flapping aircraft realizes different actions of flying.

NOVEL AIRCRAFT ELECTRICAL POWER DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM BASED ON DISTRIBUTED COMPUTER

As a matured technique used in many fields,the distributed computer system is still a new management method for the aeronautical electrical power distribution system in our country. In this paper, a novel aircraft electrical power distribution system based on the distributed computer system is proposed. The principles, features and structure of the aircraft electrical power distribution system and the distributed computer system named electrical load management system (ELMS) are studied. The ELMS composed of four electrical load management centers (ELMCs) and two power source processors (PSPs) operates in the 1553B buses. Principles of the ELMCs and the PSPs are introduced. With the application of the distributed computer system, the aircraft electrical power distribution system is simple, adaptable and flexible.

基于ADAMS/Aircraft的舰载机逃逸性能分析

文章基于MSC ADAMS/Aircraft平台,建立了目标舰载机得起落架、轮胎、机身及全机虚拟样机模型,并进行飞机逃逸仿真分析,结果表明目标舰载机具有较好的逃逸性能。

ESTIMATION METHOD FOR AIRCRAFT SIMILARITY BASED ON FUZZY THEORY AND GREY INCIDENCE ANALYSIS

An estimation method for aircraft similarity based on fuzzy theory and grey incidence analysis is presented. This estimation method is made up of the triangular fuzzy transforming model of linguistic variables and the method of grey incidence analysis. Nine feature attributes of aircraft are selected to estimate the similarity between the new aircraft and the existing aircraft. A new aircraft X and other six existing aircrafts are taken as examples. Analyses show that similarity estimation results obtained from the method are in accordance with practice.

AIRCRAFT FLIGHT SAFETY ANALYSIS IN LOW ALTITUDE AIRSPACE

The low altitude airspace will be open in China, general aviation flights are tremendously increased. Whether aircrafts can fly safely and how to determine the requirements of safety flight are the problems needed to be confirmed. Under this circumstances, based on the international Civil Aviation Organization（ICAO） criteria and the standards made by CAAC, this paper adopts the ＂See and Avoid＂ principle. Under the binding conditions of flight rules, visibility requirements, responding time, the aircraft speed, circle banking angle or the climbing angle, based on its study on aircraft dynamics principles, this paper establishes a mathematical collision avoidance model for head-to-head traffic and crossing converging traffic at the same level. And the safety separation requirements of the aircrafts in low altitude flight are equantitatively analyzed. Finally, the Matlab software is used to analyze the above method. The result shows that the safe traffic avoidance of the converging traffic at the same level meets certain flight conditions, while intersecting the traffic at the same level can safely avoid the collision.