Development of a Stability Control Method for the Aero-Train

Abstract

Taking into account the seriousness of the greenhouse effect, drastic measures must be taken to prevent carbon dioxide emissions from transportation systems. In Japan, over 20% of the carbon dioxide is emitted from transportation systems. Aero-Train is a new zero-emission high-speed vehicle proposed by the authors. Aero-Train levitates aerodynamically using the wing-in-ground effect (WIG). In order to investigate the stability of Aero-Train, wind tunnel experiments of the front body section of a test run model of Aero-Train (ART002) and a levitating test run of ART002 using an improved control program were performed. The results showed that the front section of the body is unstable or is weakly stable in the direction of yawing and rolling. In the levitating test run of ART002, levitated running without surface contact was achieved inside the guide way. The amplitude of the roll angle oscillation was reduced by more than 50% compared to that of the previous control program. However, the vibration of the rolling remained.

Measurement of ground effect and boundary-layer transition by towing wind tunnel

“…The wing is set at the bottom of an extension cart, see figure 8(a), that is pushed by the HART vehicle. The employed wing is NACA 6412 modified, which is the same shape as Aerotrain's airfoil (Kikuchi et al 2007). The size of this wing model is 1.0 m in chord and 1.8 m in span.…”

“…Since the WIG vehicle moves close to the ground or water surface, the wings must be precisely controlled to keep the vehicle's height (Ahamed and Kohama 1999, Ollia 1980, Takahashi et al 2006. The recently proposed WIG vehicle Aerotrain has wings in ground effect for not only levitation but also guidance (Kikuchi et al 2007). Thus in this Aerotrain, multiple wings must be controlled simultaneously.…”

A Study on the Relationship between the Design of Aerotrain and Its Stability Based on a Three-Dimensional Dynamic Model

“…Compared with those conventional WIG crafts [10][11][12][13], the Aerotrain has less external disturbances and it is safer because the operation of the vehicle is based on the use of a solid guideway [3]. There have been several studies on the control of the Aerotrain [14][15][16], but there is insufficient knowledge on the design of the vehicle body which has a desirable dynamic characteristic. Thus, the design of the Aerotrain with only levitation wings and guide wings is controllable, but does not have dynamic stability.…”

Influence of wing angle of attack and relative position on the aerodynamics of aerotrain

“…4 Compared with magnetically levitated trains and other WIG-effect crafts on water surface, the WIG train system has lower drag and a higher security coefficient for the U-shaped guideway. [5][6][7][8][9] But the lift force may not be equal to the gravity of aerotrain while the train is traveling at a constant velocity, that is, aerotrain will have a fluctuant velocity vertical to the ground. Thus, the distance sensors and wing flap should be applied to measure and adjust the distance between ground and airfoil and then limit the vertical velocity.…”