• Advances in aircraft and spacecraft science
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• v.7 no.6
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• pp.553-570
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• 2020

To address the problems caused by the strong coupling of an airbreathing hypersonic vehicle's airframe and propulsion to the integrated control system design, an integrated airframe-propulsion model is established, and the coupling characteristics between the aircraft and engine are analyzed. First, the airframe-propulsion integration model is established based on the typical nonlinear longitudinal dynamical model of an air-breathing hypersonic vehicle and the one-dimensional dual-mode scramjet model. Thrust, moment, angle of attack, altitude, and velocity are used as transfer variables between the aircraft model and the engine model. The one-dimensional scramjet model can accurately reflect the working state of the engine and provide data to support the coupling analysis. Second, owing to the static instability of the aircraft model, the linear quadratic regulator (LQR) controller of the aircraft is designed to ensure attitude stability and height tracking. Finally, the coupling relationship between the aircraft and the engine is revealed through simulation examples. The interaction between vehicle attitude and engine working condition is analyzed, and the influence of vehicle attitude on engine safety is considered. When the engine is in a critical working state, the attitude change of the aircraft will not affect the engine safety without considering coupling, whereas when coupling is considered, the attitude change of the aircraft may cause the engine unstart, which demonstrates the significance of considering coupling characteristics.

• International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.651-661
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• 2017

A truss-braced wing (TBW) aircraft has recently received increasing attention due to higher aerodynamic efficiency compared to conventional cantilever wing aircraft. For conceptual TBW aircraft design, we developed a propulsion-and-airframe integrated design environment by replacing a semi-empirical turbofan engine model with a thermodynamic cycle-based one built upon the numerical propulsion system simulation (NPSS). The constructed NPSS model benefitted TBW aircraft design study, as it could handle engine installation effects influencing engine fuel efficiency. The NPSS model also contributed to broadening TBW aircraft design space, for it provided turbofan engine design variables involving a technology factor reflecting progress in propulsion technology. To effectively consolidate the NPSS propulsion model with the TBW airframe model, we devised a rapid, approximate substitute of the NPSS model by reduced-order modeling (ROM) to resolve difficulties in model integration. In addition, we formed an artificial neural network (ANN) that associates engine component attributes evaluated by object-oriented weight analysis of turbine engine (WATE++) with engine design variables to determine engine weight and size, both of which bring together the propulsion and airframe system models. Through propulsion-andairframe design space exploration, we optimized TBW aircraft design for fuel saving and revealed that a simple engine model neglecting engine installation effects may overestimate TBW aircraft performance.