Bow Wave Effect in Probe and Drogue Aerial Refuelling

Bhandari, Ujjar; Thomas, Peter; Bullock, Steve; Richardson, Thomas S.

doi:10.2514/6.2013-4695

Cited by 15 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…According to the Monte Carlo simulations, the success rate depends on many factors including the docking error threshold R C , the strength of the atmospheric turbulence, and other random disturbances. The simulation results are consistent with results in [2] [4]. When the aerodynamic disturbances are strong, both the drogue position oscillation and the receiver tracking error will be significant, then the success rate will be low.…”

Section: Iterative Learning Processsupporting

confidence: 88%

“…Therefore, it is difficult to design an AAR system to control the probe on the receiver to capture the moving drogue within centimeter level in the docking stage.It used to be thought that the aerodynamic disturbances in the aerial refueling mainly include the tanker vortex, wind gust, and atmospheric turbulence. According to NASA Autonomous Aerial Refueling Demonstration (AARD) project [2], the forebody flow field of the receiver may also significantly affect the docking control of AAR, which is called "the bow wave effect" [4]. As a result, the modeling and simulation methods for the bow wave effect were studied in our previous works [5,6].Since the obtained mathematical models are somewhat complex and there may be some uncertain factors in practice, this paper aims to use a model-free method to compensate for the docking error caused by aerodynamic disturbances including the bow wave effect.Most of the existing studies on AAR docking control do not consider the bow wave effect.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In [10,11], the wind effects from the tanker vortex, the wind gust, and the atmospheric turbulence are analyzed, and in [5,6,12], the modeling and simulation methods for the receiver forebody bow wave effect are studied, but no control methods are proposed. In [4], simulations show that the bow wave effect can be compensated by adding an offset value to the reference trajectory, but the method for obtaining the offset value is not given.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Terminal Iterative Learning Control for Autonomous Aerial Refueling Under Aerodynamic Disturbances

Dai

Quan

Ren

et al. 2018

Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics

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Aerial refueling has demonstrated significant benefits to aviation by extending the range and endurance of aircraft [1]. The development of autonomous aerial refueling (AAR) techniques for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) makes new missions and capabilities possible [2], like the ability for long range or long time flight. As the most widely used aerial refueling method, the probedrogue refueling (PDR) system is considered to be more flexible and compact than other refueling systems. However, a drawback of PDR is that the drogue is passive and susceptible to aerodynamic disturbances [3]. Therefore, it is difficult to design an AAR system to control the probe on the receiver to capture the moving drogue within centimeter level in the docking stage.It used to be thought that the aerodynamic disturbances in the aerial refueling mainly include the tanker vortex, wind gust, and atmospheric turbulence. According to NASA Autonomous Aerial Refueling Demonstration (AARD) project [2], the forebody flow field of the receiver may also significantly affect the docking control of AAR, which is called "the bow wave effect" [4]. As a result, the modeling and simulation methods for the bow wave effect were studied in our previous works [5,6].Since the obtained mathematical models are somewhat complex and there may be some uncertain factors in practice, this paper aims to use a model-free method to compensate for the docking error caused by aerodynamic disturbances including the bow wave effect.Most of the existing studies on AAR docking control do not consider the bow wave effect. In [7][8][9], the drogue is assumed to be relatively static (or oscillates around the equilibrium) and not affected by the flow field of the receiver forebody. However, in practice, the receiver aircraft is affected by aerodynamic disturbances, and the drogue is affected by both the wind disturbances and the receiver forebody bow wave. As a major difficulty in the control of AAR, the aerodynamic disturbances, especially the bow wave effect, attract increasing attention in these years. In [10,11], the wind effects from the tanker vortex, the wind gust, and the atmospheric turbulence are analyzed, and in [5,6,12], the modeling and simulation methods for the receiver forebody bow wave effect are studied, but no control methods are proposed. In [4], simulations show that the bow wave effect can be compensated by adding an offset value to the reference trajectory, but the method for obtaining the offset value is not given.

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Section: Iterative Learning Processsupporting

confidence: 88%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Terminal Iterative Learning Control for Autonomous Aerial Refueling Under Aerodynamic Disturbances

Dai

Quan

Ren

et al. 2018

Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics

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“…In the docking process, when the receiver-aircraft is close to the drogue, the drogue will deviate from the balance position and then quickly return back. This phenomenon is called as the bow wave effect or the forebody effect [3,4]. The drogue movement caused by the bow wave brings great uncertainty to the success of the docking.…”

Section: Figure 1 the Common Position Of The Probementioning

confidence: 99%

Study on the Influence of Probe’S Position on the Flow Field in Hose-Drogue Refueling System

Zhang¹,

Meng-quan²,

Zhang³

et al. 2018

Proceedings of the 2018 International Conference on Transportation &Amp; Logistics, Information &Amp; Communication, Smart City

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In the docking process of hose-drogue aerial refueling system, the bow wave effect of an approaching receiver aircraft will produce a strong aerodynamic effect on the drogue which intensify the deviation of drogue and increase the difficulty of the docking. In order to reduce the influence of bow wave effect, different locations of probe are used to reduce the adverse effect. This paper presents a receiver aircraft's bow wave effect modeling method based on potential flow theory and considers the major shape characteristics of the receiver aircraft. This method is used in a probedrogue aerial refueling dynamic simulation system, which combined with the hose-drogue dynamic model and tanker wake dynamic model. The motion characteristics of the drogue when the probe in the different position and of the different length are calculated and analyzed.

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“…Remark 6. However, in addition to atmospheric turbulence and tanker wake, bow wave also has an effect on the drogue, leading to the drogue leaving the original position when the drogue is close to the receiver aircraft, and this perturbation is obvious for the layout of probe located on the side in manned aircrafts [24][25][26]. Fortunately, UAV with aerial refueling capability can use the layout of probe located on the nose of aircrafts, which has much less bow wave effect than that of probe located on the side [5].…”

Section: Remarkmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Approach to Mathematical Modeling and Estimation of Probe-Drogue Docking Success Probability for UAV Autonomous Aerial Refueling

Wang

Xingwei

et al. 2017

International Journal of Aerospace Engineering

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One of the keys to the success of aerial refueling for probe-drogue aerial refueling system (PDARS) is the successful docking between the probe and drogue. The study of probe-drogue docking success probability offers an important support to achieving successful docking. During the docking phase of PDARS, based on prior information and reasonable assumptions for the movements of the drogue under atmospheric disturbance, the probe-drogue docking success probability is converted to the probability of the drogue center located in a specific area. A model of the probe-drogue docking success probability is established with and without actuation error, respectively. The curves of the probe-drogue docking success probability with the standard deviation of the drogue central position, the maximum distance from the drogue center position to the equilibrium position, the actuation error, and the standard deviation of the actuation error are obtained through simulations. The study has referential value for the docking maneuver decision of aerial refueling for PDARS.

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Bow Wave Effect in Probe and Drogue Aerial Refuelling

Cited by 15 publications

References 13 publications

Terminal Iterative Learning Control for Autonomous Aerial Refueling Under Aerodynamic Disturbances

Terminal Iterative Learning Control for Autonomous Aerial Refueling Under Aerodynamic Disturbances

Study on the Influence of Probe’S Position on the Flow Field in Hose-Drogue Refueling System

An Approach to Mathematical Modeling and Estimation of Probe-Drogue Docking Success Probability for UAV Autonomous Aerial Refueling

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