A Generic Stability And Control Tool For Flight Vehicle Conceptual Design: Aeromech Software Development

During the conceptual design (CD) phase, various solution concepts must, and should, be explored to select the best flight vehicle size and configuration in order to meet the mission requirements. As the aerospace industry advances novel aerospace flight vehicle configurations promising larger operational performance and overall efficiency, demanding integrated flight vehicles like the flying wing configuration (FWC) or blending wing body (BWB) are under investigation. Some of these novel configurations rely on novel control effectors (CE) and complex flight control systems in order to obtain the desired performance objectives. Clearly, stability and control plays an important roll in the design of advanced flight vehicles. Chudoba1 recognized that that the conceptual design of such vehicles requires a truly generic stability and control approach to enable consistent comparisons of novel aircraft configurations with conventional aircraft aircraft shapes. Consequently, AeroMech analyzes both symmetric and asymmetric flight vehicles in symmetric and asymmetric flight conditions. The methodology and software AeroMech contributes to (1) sizing primary control effectors to possess adequate physical control power throughout the flight envelope, the tool (2) provides trimmed aerodynamics for improved performance-optimal stability and control solutions, and (3) it analyses static and dynamic stability in all axes (open and closed loop) for ensure flight vehicle safety and compliance with certification regulations throughout the flight envelope. The development of this methodology and software has been following three fundamental steps: (1) derivation of the AeroMech methodology and mathematic frame-work, (2) development of the stand-alone AeroMech prototype software for validation purposes, and (3) integration of AeroMech into the multi-disciplinary design tool AVDS-PrADO for multi-disciplinary flight vehicle synthesis. With the first step accomplished by Chudoba1, the second step initiated by Pippalapalli6, the present work describes the completed development of the stand-alone AeroMech prototype software and its validation using the Northrop YB-49 flying wing as the primary case study demonstrating physical correctness of the algorithm but in particular the software's potential to enable true control-configured vehicle (CCV) design during the early conceptual design phase.