Flight Performance, Stability and Control

Objective

The objective of this course is to introduce the fundamentals of flight vehicle modeling, identification and control, design techniques, and help students to understand the classical control and its applications in aerospace engineering. The students are expected to grasp hand-on experiences with practical project works. The contents of the course are convering multi-disciplines, which include flight modeling, stability analysis, control theory and flight simulation.

Scope

The course covers flight aerodynamics, dynamics, control and simulation. The course consists of theoretical background introduction, demonstration, project design and code development.
  1. Introduction to the performance, stability, and control of aircraft.
  2. Understanding of aircraft equations of motion, configuration aerodynamics, and methods for analysis of linear and nonlinear systems.
  3. Appreciation of the historical context within which past aircraft have been designed and operated, providing a sound footing for the development of future aircraft.
  4. Demonstrated computing skills, through thorough knowledge and application of MATLAB.
  5. Capable of evaluating aircraft kinematics and dynamics, trim conditions, maximum range, climbing/diving/turning flight, inertial properties, stability-and-control derivatives, longitudinal and lateral-directional transients, transfer functions, state-space models, and frequency response.

Textbook & supplementary

TBD in the first class.

Experimental

  1. MATLAB.
  2. JSBSim.
  3. FlightGear.

Grading policy

  1. Experiment and Report, 30%.
  2. Midterm, 30%.
  3. Final, 40%.

Syllabus (old)

  1. Introduction
  2. History of aviation
  3. Birth of flight control
  4. Flight simulation
  5. Current simulation tools
  6. Flight aerodynamics
  7. Flight mechanics
  8. Control-oriented modelling and analysis
  9. Flight stability
  10. Flight control
  11. Flight control electronics
  12. Flying quality and safety
  13. Case study

Syllabus (updated version)

  1. Introduction: Read Abstract Chapter, and http://wright.nasa.gov/airplane/shortw.html.
  2. History of aviation: Read Chap 1.
  3. Fundamentals of Aerodynamics: Wiki: Wing. HW: Chap 2, Prob 1 and Prob 7. (2).Read: Chap 12! (Chap 13 is closely related but requires additional knowledge to be given in the following lectures).
  4. Stability: Fundamentals; Lyapunov's method. Read Chap 3.1-3.3.
  5. Longitudinal Stability: Wing and Wing-Tail Combination. Read: (1) Chap 3.1-3.2, which is however too complex compared to my note; (2) To understand the shift theorem for moment.
  6. Lateral Stability; Euler Angles. (1) Read Chap 3.4-3.5; (2) Read Chap 2. From (2.21), prove (2.22) using MATLAB. 2. Chap 2, Prob 5.
  7. Eqs of Motion: 1) Answer questions raised in Sup_I.pdf. (2) Read Chap 4.1.
  8. Linearization; Aircraft Model: from Aerodynamics to linearization: (1) Read Chap 4.2. (2) Some MATLAB demo of linearization (to be shown only during the lecture). (3) Read Chap 13! (Probs can be omitted).
  9. Revisit of Control: Laplace Transform and State Space. Read Chap 5.6-5.7, Chap 6.4. (1) Derive formulations in the Laplace transform table. (2) Read Chap 11.1-11.4, and finish Probs 11.1, 11.3.
  10. Longitudinal Dynamics; Matlab Design Cases. (1) Read Chap 6. (2) Chap 6, Probs 1,2,4,7.
  11. Lateral Dynamics; (Rolling) Design Cases. (1) Read Chap 7. (2) Derive the lateral dynamic eqs.
  12. Flying and Handling Qualities. (1) Read 6.5, and Chaps 10-11 again. HW: Probs 10.1, 11.6, 11.7.
  13. More Design Cases with Control Methods: MATLAB examples: (1) Hyper's automatic landing; (2) Lateral control using mu-synthesis.
  14. From History to Future. HW: Course report (for paper aircraft etc).
  15. Final review.

* 说明：受GitHub托管300M空间限制，所有参考资料不再在线提供。