• International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.120-131
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• 2016

The full results of troubleshooting process related to the flight control system of a tilt-rotor type UAV in the flight tests are described. Flight tests were conducted in helicopter, conversion, and airplane modes. The vehicle was flown using automatic functions, which include speed-hold, altitude-hold, heading-hold, guidance modes, as well as automatic take-off and landing. Many unexpected problems occurred during the envelope expansion tests which were mostly under those automatic functions. The anomalies in helicopter mode include vortex ring state (VRS), long delay in the automatic take-off, and the initial overshoot in the automatic landing. In contrast, the anomalies in conversion mode are untrimmed AOS oscillation and the calibration errors of the air data sensors. The problems of low damping in rotor speed and roll rate responses are found in airplane mode. Once all of the known problems had been solved, the vehicle in airplane mode gradually reached the maximum design speed of 440km/h at the operation altitude of 3km. This paper also presents a comprehensive detailing of the control systems of the tilt-rotor unmanned air vehicle (UAV).

• Journal of Aerospace System Engineering
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.12-19
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• 2009

The research for the fatigue analysis is regarded greatly as important in aerospace field. Moreover, a study on the fatigue characteristic is very actively progressing. In this study, the fatigue life estimation was performed for Flaperon Joint which has FCL(fatigue critical location) of tilt-rotor UAV. The Flaperon Joint should be taken the various loads by several missions profiles of UAV. The fatigue load spectrum of Flaperon Joint is generated by the standard mission segment for the tilt-rotor UAV, and this spectrum is used for the fatigue test and analysis. The in-house fatigue analysis program is applied to calculate the fatigue life based on Stress-Life(S-N) method. The S-N curve is generated from the S-N data of Mil-Handbook by second order polynomial regression method. Moreover, the coefficient of determination is used to ensure how accuracy it has. In addition, the Goodman equation is used to consider the mean stress effect for evaluating more accurate fatigue life. Finally, the result of fatigue analysis is verified by comparing with the fatigue test result for the Flaperon Joint.

• Journal of Aerospace System Engineering
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.1-6
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• 2014

This paper presents the trade-off study of conducting a survey of the weights for various kind of propulsion systems installed in the Smart Unmanned Aerial Vehicle TR-100, a tilt-rotor vehicle, which is developed by Korea Aerospace Research Institute, in order to predict the appropriate propulsion system for present and future Personal Air Vehicle, which has single mode and vertical take-off & landing. In order to perform the trade-off study, we set the requirements that the vehicle hovers for 1 hour with 1,000 kg maximum take off weights. In this study, the power systems are classified engine, which uses the fossil fuel - turboshaft engine, piston engine, diesel engine and rotary engine, and electric motor with fuelcell or Li-Ion battery. The results of trade-off study shows the power systems using fossil fuel are superior to using fuelcell or Li-Ion battery for weight of propulsion system. Also turboshaft engine is the best power system for the aspects of system weight, and the nexts are rotary engine, piston engine, diesel engine, electric motor with Li-Ion battery, and electric motor with fuelcell.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.8-17
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• 2006

• Aerospace Engineering and Technology
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.39-44
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• 2005

To validate the rotor performance analysis, 3D Computational Fluid Dynamics(CFD) analysis was performed for tilt rotor aeroacoustic model(TRAM). Also, 3D vehicle with rotating rotors was simulated for rotor power effect analysis. Multiple reference frame(MRF) and sliding mesh techniques were implemented to capture the effect of rotor revolution. CFD results were compared with the wind tunnel test results to validate their accuracy. At helicopter mode, CFD analysis predicted lower thrust than the wind tunnel test but CFD results showed good agreement with the test result at cruise mode. Rotor power effect decreased the lift but did not change drag and pitching moment.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.20 no.11
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• pp.1103-1111
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• 2014

The results of control law design for a tilt-rotor unmanned aerial vehicle that has a nacelle mounted wing extension (WE) are presented in this paper. It consists of a control surface mixer, stability and control augmentation system (SCAS), hold mode for altitude / speed / heading, and a guidance mode for preprogram and point navigation which includes automatic take-off and landing. The conversion corridor and the control moments derivatives between the original tilt-rotor and its variant of the nacelle mounted WE were compared to show the effectiveness of the WE. The nacelle conversion of the original tilt-rotor starts when the airspeed is greater than 30 km/h but its WE variant starts at 0 km/h in order to reduce the drag caused by the high incidence angle of the WE. The stability margins of the inner loop are presented with the optimization approach. The outer loops for the hold mode are designed with trial and error methods with linear and nonlinear simulation. The main control parameter for altitude control of the helicopter mode is thrust command and it is transferred to the pitch attitude command in airplane mode. Otherwise, the control parameter for the speed of the helicopter mode is the pitch attitude command and it is transferred to the thrust command in airplane mode. Therefore the speed and altitude hold mode are coupled to each other and are engaged at the same time when an internal pilot engages any of the altitude or speed hold modes. The nonlinear simulation results of the guidance control for the preprogrammed mode and point navigation are also presented including automatic take-off and landing in order to prove the full control law.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.561-568
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• 2006

CFD simulation for one of tilt-rotor UAV configurations, TR-E2S1, was performed to investigate its aerodynamic characteristics. Control surfaces such as elevator and rudder were deflected and wing incidence angle was changed. Also aerodynamic stabilities were analyzed with the variation of pitch and yaw angles. The comparison of CFD with wind tunnel test results reveals the same trends in the aerodynamic characteristics and stabilities. However 12% scale wind tunnel test model is too small for accurate data collection and should build a high fidelity model for quantitative data comparison.

• Aerospace Engineering and Technology
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.14-18
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• 2007

The ground effect on tilt-rotor UAV is analyzed by simulating the hovering UAV for various altitudes. Ground effect increases pressure beneath the UAV body and generates additional lifting force. The ground effect diminishes at altitude 3m and hovering UAV generates constant lifting force above 3m.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2011.11a
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• pp.389-392
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• 2011

In this study, the engine performance data was extracted and analyzed through the flight test of Smart UAV which is tilt rotor aircraft. The flight test was conducted for the transition flight regime where the tilt angle of prop-rotor varies from 90 degree to 0 degree and vice versa. The engine performance data such as engine power and specific fuel consumption gathered from flight tests were compared well with the results of engine performance analysis program.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aviation and Aeronautics
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.15-20
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• 2013

In order to set up the optimal required capabilities to satisfy a variety of domestic and foreign demands for the Tilt-rotor UAV, MOE(Measure of Effectiveness) hierarchy was designed through an expert discussion, and the weight of the MOE was determined by utilizing AHP method. The independent MOE assessment on the required capabilities was accomplished for the current configuration, available alternatives and foreign competitive UAVs. Finally the cost-effectiveness for the alternative and competition UAV was analyzed.