Search Results (12)

This paper proposes a global, predefined time control method based on a predefined time disturbance observer to address the issues of wide flight airspace, large aerodynamic deviations, and high precision requirements for the entire process of aerospace aircraft re-entry. Firstly, this method proposes an adjustable predefined time nonsingular sliding mode disturbance observer, which can not only accurately estimate the modeling uncertainty and external aerodynamic disturbances of the aerospace aircraft, but also quickly converge while suppressing chattering. Then, based on the disturbance observation results, combined with a new performance function and nonsingular predefined-time sliding mode, a global predefined-time controller suitable for any order system was designed. Unlike existing methods that can only ensure that the initial deviation converges to the deviation boundary within a predefined time and then remains within the deviation boundary, it can ensure that any deviation generated within the error boundary also converges within the predefined time. Finally, the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed control scheme were verified through comparative simulation. Full article

As advancements in aerospace technology continue, reentry conditions pose increasingly rigorous requirements for thermal protection materials. Among these, fiber-reinforced phenolic resin composites have drawn substantial interest for their robust thermal insulation capabilities and enhanced ablation resistance, mechanical strength, and long-term reliability. This paper provides a comprehensive review of recent developments in fiber-reinforced phenolic resin composites, examining factors such as resin density, nanopore size within the matrix, resin cross-linking density, fiber–resin interfacial bonding, fiber length, fiber crystallization degree, and fiber weave structures that collectively influence composite performance. The typical applications of these composites in ultrahigh-speed aircraft are also discussed. Furthermore, the paper offers recommendations for future advancements focusing on optimizing mechanical, ablative, and insulation properties to meet the multifunctional demands of thermal protection materials. Full article

This paper focuses on the re-entry phase of lunar return spacecraft and addresses the design optimization of their re-entry trajectories in real-world conditions. Considering various constraints of re-entry flights, this study introduces a refined superior control theory, drawing from Xuesen Qian’s descriptions in engineering control theory, and presents a specific superior control algorithm. The designed superior control algorithm and the traditional weighted optimal control algorithm were employed to simulate the lunar return and re-entry processes. Two representative trajectories were selected for a comparative analysis to obtain various parameters. Results indicate that the trajectory optimized using the weighted optimal control algorithm can only ensure that multiple performance indexes are optimized according to preset weights but cannot achieve superior performance in all metrics. In contrast, trajectories optimized using the superior control algorithm effectively leverage the permissible floating range of performance indexes without exceeding the maximum limit, thereby ensuring superior performance in all metrics. This paper is the first to refine the superior control theory proposed by Xuesen Qian, to design a specific algorithm theory for superior control, and to apply it to aerospace re-entry trajectory optimization—providing a theoretical foundation for future non-weighted control algorithm developments. Full article

Atomic oxygen (AtOx) is a major component of the space environment between 200 and 800 km (LEO—low Earth orbit region) and is the principal source of erosion for exposed aerospace structures. The damage to surface materials is proportional to the AtOx fluence, which depends on altitude, exposure time, orbital inclination, and solar activity, and it is caused by the formation of volatile oxides which do not adhere to the surface; furthermore, the mass loss may also be worsened by UV radiation, which increases the chemical degradation of the exposed material. Carbon/carbon (C/C) is an advanced ceramic composite that is frequently found as a base component of thermal protection systems (TPS), rocket nozzles, or other spacecraft subsystems. In this work, a simulation of the AtOx/UV synergistic effects on C/C plates exposed at different attitude positions were carried out by experimental tests performed at the Aerospace Systems Laboratory (LSA—Sapienza University of Rome) by means of an Atomic Oxygen OS-Prey RF plasma source, which also included a high-power UV-ray generator. The present experimental plan was built on the activity developed during recent years at LSA concerning the study of C/C materials for protecting aerospace structures from thermal shock in re-entry missions. The tests were conceived by considering a fixed time of exposure with a base fluence of 7.6 × 10¹⁹ n.s./cm², as evaluated from the erosion of the reference samples exposed to AtOx flux at a normal incidence; the simulation of the different attitude positions was then analyzed, also considering the simultaneous effect of UV radiation. The results of the aging ground test suggest the following: (i) C/C oxidation in LEO must be taken into full consideration in the TPS design with reference to protective coating solutions, (ii) the LEO environment simulation is closely related to AtOx/UV combined irradiation, as well as to the spacecraft’s in-orbit attitude. Full article

The reentry trajectory planning problem of hypersonic vehicles is generally a continuous and nonconvex optimization problem, and it constitutes a critical challenge within the field of aerospace engineering. In this paper, an improved sequential convexification algorithm is proposed to solve it and achieve online trajectory planning. In the proposed algorithm, the Chebyshev pseudo-spectral method with high-accuracy approximation performance is first employed to discretize the continuous dynamic equations. Subsequently, based on the multipliers and linearization methods, the original nonconvex trajectory planning problem is transformed into a series of relaxed convex subproblems in the form of an augmented Lagrange function. Then, the interior point method is utilized to iteratively solve the relaxed convex subproblem until the expected convergence precision is achieved. The convex-optimization-based and multipliers methods guarantee the promotion of fast convergence precision, making it suitable for online trajectory planning applications. Finally, numerical simulations are conducted to verify the performance of the proposed algorithm. The simulation results show that the algorithm possesses better convergence performance, and the solution time can reach the level of seconds, which is more than 97% less than nonlinear programming algorithms, such as the sequential quadratic programming algorithm. Full article

How to improve the computational efficiency of flow field simulations around irregular objects in near-continuum and continuum flow regimes has always been a challenge in the aerospace re-entry process. The discrete velocity method (DVM) is a commonly used algorithm for the discretized solutions of the Boltzmann-BGK model equation. However, the discretization of both physical and molecular velocity spaces in DVM can result in significant computational costs. This paper focuses on unlocking the key to accelerate the convergence in DVM calculations, thereby reducing the computational burden. Three versions of DVM are investigated: the semi-implicit DVM (DVM-I), fully implicit DVM (DVM-II), and fully implicit DVM with an inner iteration of the macroscopic governing equation (DVM-III). In order to achieve full implicit discretization of the collision term in the Boltzmann-BGK equation, it is necessary to solve the corresponding macroscopic governing equation in DVM-II and DVM-III. In DVM-III, an inner iterative process of the macroscopic governing equation is employed between two adjacent DVM steps, enabling a more accurate prediction of the equilibrium state for the full implicit discretization of the collision term. Fortunately, the computational cost of solving the macroscopic governing equation is significantly lower than that of the Boltzmann-BGK equation. This is primarily due to the smaller number of conservative variables in the macroscopic governing equation compared to the discrete velocity distribution functions in the Boltzmann-BGK equation. Our findings demonstrate that the fully implicit discretization of the collision term in the Boltzmann-BGK equation can accelerate DVM calculations by one order of magnitude in continuum and near-continuum flow regimes. Furthermore, the introduction of the inner iteration of the macroscopic governing equation provides an additional 1–2 orders of magnitude acceleration. Such advancements hold promise in providing a computational approach for simulating flows around irregular objects in near-space environments. Full article

High-speed aerospace applications, such as re-entry vehicles, mostly involve thin-walled structural components with a high strength-to-weight ratio and high-temperature resistant. The present novel work comprises the structural and thermal analysis of re-entry vehicle nose structures made of four functionally graded materials (FGM). Four FGM shell structures made of aluminum/silicon carbide, aluminum/aluminum oxide, Ti-6Al-4V/silicon carbide and Ti-6Al-4V/aluminum oxide have been considered for the re-entry vehicle nose. The effect of various thermal environments, as well as the linear temperature rise from metal-rich to ceramic-rich on critical buckling temperature and natural frequency have been studied. The critical buckling temperature, as well as the natural frequency of the large, thin re-entry vehicle nose structures, decrease with an increase in a uniform thermal environment, as well as linear temperature rise. The effect of shell thickness on buckling and dynamic characteristics of an FGM shell is also studied, suiting the nose of the re-entry vehicle under various linear temperature rises. The critical buckling temperature and natural frequency are quantified for several cases, and it was observed that they are significantly influenced by the shell thickness. Thus, the research intends to determine the thickness required for such thin and large shells to withstand in the re-entry thermal conditions. Full article

Radio communication is a vital challenge during vehicle reentry into the Earth’s atmosphere in practice, because the plasma covering the aerospace vehicle can block the communication as the spacecraft reenters the atmosphere. To investigate the potential of the terahertz wave, the transfer function method is first applied to study the wave propagation behavior in plasma, validated by the numerical and the experimental results. The comparison of all three results shows a decent agreement, with the average absolute difference around 1.1 dB for the power loss between the theoretical and numerical results for 100 GHz and 220 GHz and around 0.8 dB for the power loss between the simulation and measurement for 100 GHz and 220 GHz, which shows the validity of the transfer function method and the great potential of the numerical model for future study. Moreover, the results shows the possibility of the application of the THz wave to deal with the blackout problem. Full article

Aircraft, such as amphibious planes, airliners, helicopters and re-entry capsules, are frequently subject to impacting loads from water-landing/ditching on various free surfaces, especially under wave conditions. Understanding and quantifying the water-landing/ditching performance on wave surfaces are of fundamental important for the design and certification of crashworthiness in the field of aerospace engineering. This study aims to numerically assess the effect of wave surface on water-landing process of an amphibious aircraft. The numerical implementation is realized in Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) framework by combining finite volume method (FVM), volume of fluid (VOF) approach and velocity-inlet wavemaker. The temporal-spatial characteristic of numerical wave and the accuracy of presented model are, respectively, validated by analytical wave and convergence studies. The aircraft landing simulations with different free surface conditions, i.e., calm water, regular wave with different wave heights are then performed and quantitatively compared through several physical parameters, including acceleration, velocity, pressure, pitch angle and free surface deformation. It was found that the aircraft regular wave-landing process experiences several unique stages comparing with the calm-water-landing case. The results clearly confirm that wave surface can influence the aircraft landing performance to a great extent. The fundamental mechanism is found to be that the wave surface slope and wave particle velocity remarkably change the impacting position and effective impacting velocity of the aircraft. Full article

For most re-entry capsules, the shape of the forebody of the capsule is designed based on the blunted nose cone. A similar shape can be created using a hyperboloid of revolution that can control the nose bluntness and the half angle of the cone easily. In this study, the hypersonic aerodynamic characteristics of re-entry capsules designed with hyperbolic contours were investigated using the CFD code, FaSTAR, developed by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). The CFD results showed that, using the hyperbolic contours, the drag and lift coefficients can be increased compared to those for the Hayabusa re-entry capsule without changing the shape of the capsule drastically. This suggests that shape design based on the hyperbolic contours can improve the aerodynamic characteristics of re-entry capsules. Full article

Dual color emissivity free methodology by thermography allows to obtain 2D (two-dimensional) temperature maps by using local grey body hypotheses and narrowband filters. By using a suitable pair of filters is possible to obtain the ratio between two thermal camera input signals that depend only on the temperature and not on the emissive properties of the investigated surface. The aim of this concise review paper is to summarize and discuss the developments and applications from long- to mid-near infrared ranges and in a wide range of temperature values of the dual-color thermographic technique that has been analysed through the use of an analytical model based on the integration of Planck’s law and attenuated with the transmission curves of sensors, optics, filters, and attenuators during the last years. Moreover, the applicability to the non-stationary temperature conditions and finalized to the materials mainly used in the aerospace plasma wind tunnel (PWT) re-entry are shown. Full article

The refractory diborides (HfB₂ and ZrB₂) are considered as promising ultra-high temperature ceramic (UHTCs) where low damage tolerance limits their application for the thermal protection system in re-entry vehicles. In this regard, SiC and CNT have been synergistically added as the sintering aids and toughening agents in the spark plasma sintered (SPS) HfB₂-ZrB₂ system. Herein, a novel equimolar composition of HfB₂ and ZrB₂ has shown to form a solid-solution which then allows compositional tailoring of mechanical properties (such as hardness, elastic modulus, and fracture toughness). The hardness of the processed composite is higher than the individual phase hardness up to 1.5 times, insinuating the synergy of SiC and CNT reinforcement in HfB₂-ZrB₂ composites. The enhanced fracture toughness of CNT reinforced composite (up to a 196% increment) surpassing that of the parent materials (ZrB₂/HfB₂-SiC) is attributed to the synergy of solid solution formation and enhanced densification (~99.5%). In addition, the reduction in the analytically quantified interfacial residual tensile stress with SiC and CNT reinforcements contribute to the enhancement in the fracture toughness of HfB₂-ZrB₂-SiC-CNT composites, mandatory for aerospace applications. Full article