Type of Document Master's Thesis Author Feldman, Michael A. URN etd-17616979652211 Title Efficient Low-Speed Flight in a Wind Field Degree Master of Science Department Aerospace and Ocean Engineering Advisory Committee
Advisor Name Title Durham, Wayne C. Lutze, Frederick H. Jr. Cliff, Eugene M. Committee Chair Keywords
- optimization
- optimal control
- aircraft performance
Date of Defense 1996-07-24 Availability unrestricted Abstract A new software tool was needed for flight
planning of a high altitude, low speed
unmanned aerial vehicle which would be
flying in winds close to the actual airspeed of
the vehicle. An energy modeled NLP
formulation was used to obtain results for a
variety of missions and wind profiles. The
energy constraint derived included terms due
to the wind field and the performance index
was a weighted combination of the amount of
fuel used and the final time. With no emphasis
on time and with no winds the vehicle was
found to fly at maximum lift to drag velocity,
Vmd. When flying in tail winds the velocity
was less than Vmd, while flying in head winds
the velocity was higher than Vmd. A family of
solutions was found with varying times of
flight and varying fuel amounts consumed
which will aid the operator in choosing a flight
plan depending on a desired landing time. At
certain parts of the flight, the turning terms in
the energy constraint equation were found to
be significant. An analysis of a simpler vertical
plane cruise optimal control problem was
used to explain some of the characteristics of
the vertical plane NLP results.
Files
Filename Size Approximate Download Time (Hours:Minutes:Seconds)
28.8 Modem 56K Modem ISDN (64 Kb) ISDN (128 Kb) Higher-speed Access etd.pdf 903.70 Kb 00:04:11 00:02:09 00:01:52 00:00:56 00:00:04
|
|
If you have questions or technical problems, please Contact DLA.
