Study of Hybrid Air Vehicle Stability Using Computational Fluid Dynamics

Abstract

This paper uses Computational Fluid Dynamics to predict aerodynamic damping of airships or hybrid air vehicles. This class of aircraft is characterised by large lifting bodies combining buoyancy and circulatory lift. Damping is investigated via forced oscillations of the vehicle in pitch and yaw. The employed method is verified using data for lighter than air vehicles. The use of fins and stabilisers was found to be beneficial. The rear part of the body was dominated by separated flow that contained more frequencies than the forcing frequency imposed on the body. The final design is seen to be dynamically stable across a range of conditions for small pitch angles.Nomenclaturė

Stability Derivatives of Various Lighter-than-Air Vehicles: A CFD-Based Comparative Study

“…Stability derivatives' prediction for a full aircraft configuration was investigated to represent the unsteady aerodynamic load on the flight dynamics for transonic speeds and larger angles of attack, as in [31,32]. An investigation of the stability of hybrid airships using the analysis of the stability derivatives was presented by [33]. The added mass and inertia terms' extraction for an underwater vehicle was reported in [34].…”