Search results

This paper aims to investigate the effect of three-dimensional (3D) inlet guide vanes (IGVs) on performance of a centrifugal pump.

A design method for 3D IGVs is proposed based on the controllable velocity moment, which is determined by a fourth-order dimensionless function. Numerical simulation of the centrifugal pump with IGVs is carried out by solving the Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations. The method of frozen rotor is applied to couple the stationary and rotational domain.

The efficiency of pump with 3D IGVs is higher than that with 2D IGVs for most prewhirl angles, which validate the advancement of 3D IGVs on prewhirl regulation. The effect of prewhirl regulation at small flow rate is more significant than that at large flow rate.

A prediction model of velocity moment based on the Oseen vortex is proposed to describe the flow pattern downstream the IGVs.

In this paper a comprehensive survey of spinning phenomena is attempted. The presentation is elementary in character, starting with the simple geometry of the spin, then dealing with autorotation, including wing‐dropping tendencies, passing on then to a consideration of aerodynamic pitching and yawing moments, and finally some attention is given in turn to the incipient spin, the steady spin and recovery. The arguments are in the main qualitative so that a student of the subject may first familiarise himself with the fundamental principles. A bibliography is given which includes all the important papers published on the subject within the last few years, together with a few which are now more of historical interest. Most of these reports emanate from the A.R.C. and N.A.C.A. and due acknowledgment is made of the source of some of the experiments which have been taken in illustration of the points made. Although not the urgent problem that it once was, the subject of the spinning of aeroplanes continues to occupy a prominent place in the programmes of various research establishments, both here and abroad. Because both of the complexity of the phenomena involved and of the great importance that an ultimate solution should be found it has continued to be since the war one of the most difficult and protracted problems in aeronautics. Owing to the body of experimental data which has been gradually built up, model and full scale, designers now know what peculiar properties in an aeroplane are liable to prove dangerous as far as recovery is concerned. There is unfortunately no mathematical precision about this process and the fact that machines can still be built which, unless they are tested in the spinning tunnel and the necessary modifications made, might become uncontrollable in a spin should be sufficient to indicate that a final solution is far front having been achieved. It seems exceedingly unlikely that there will ever be sufficient experimental evidence to enable a designer to predict confidently that his machine, if it be perfectly orthodox, will not have some vicious spinning tendency. On the other hand, any designer could build a perfectly safe aeroplane from the point of view of spinning if due regard had not to be paid to other items of performance and safety. The necessity for compromise in design becomes a major problem when spinning is one of the factors that have to be taken into account. There is ample evidence that this problem is being resolutely tackled by designers. All the same, the present position cannot be regarded as satisfactory and, unless some new device is produced which will remove autorotation from the possible regimes of an aeroplane, we must continue to progress along already well‐tried lines.

Nowadays flaps and winglets are one of the main mechanisms to increase airfoil efficiency. This study aims to investigate the power performance of vertical axis wind turbines (VAWT) that are equipped with diverse gurney flaps. This study could play a crucial role in the design of the VAWT in the future.

In this paper, the two-dimensional computational fluid dynamics simulation is used. The second-order finite volume method is used for the discretization of the governing equations.

The results show that the gurney flap enhances the power coefficient at the low range of tip speed ratio (TSR). When an angled and standard gurney flap case has the same aerodynamic performance, an angled gurney flap case has a lower hinge moment on the junction of airfoil and gurney flap which shows the structural excellence of this case. In all gurney flap cases, the power coefficient increases by an average of 20% at the TSR range of 0.6 to 1.8. The gurney flap cases do not perform well at the high TSR range and the results show a lower amount of power coefficient compare to the clean airfoil.

The angled gurney flap which has the structural advantage and is deployed to the pressure side of the airfoil improves the efficiency of VAWT at the low and medium range of TSR. This study recommends using a controllable gurney flap which could be deployed at a certain amount of TSR.

The purpose of this paper is to find an omnidirectional robust gust response stabilization (GRS) scheme with anti-disturbance and state-limited features.

Disturbance observer and barrier Lyapunov techniques, which can, respectively, estimate the lumped disturbances of the dynamic system in real-time and ensure the middle states within some prescribed ranges according to some flight safety indexes.

In the existing literature, almost all of the GRS controllers are either only for the longitudinal dynamics or only for the latitudinal dynamics. Few studies have considered the gust response alleviation problem with omnidirectional wind disturbance and full aircraft model.

This paper proposes a fresh scheme to deal with a more holistic GRS problem; the disturbance observer based (DOB) barrier Lyapunov backstepping longitudinal controller has been put forward; DOB nonlinear dynamic inversion to handle the multi-input-multi-output lateral dynamics; and to closely connect the two loops of the latitudinal dynamics, a manipulating variable conversion method is proposed.

This paper aims to propose a novel design concept for a biomimetic dolphin-like underwater glider, which can offer the advantages of both robotic dolphins and underwater gliders to achieve high-maneuverability, high-speed and long-distance motions.

To testify the gliding capability of dolphin-like robot without traditional internal movable masses, the authors first developed a skilled and simple dolphin-like prototype with only gliding capability. The hydrodynamic coefficients, including lift, drag and pitching moment, are obtained through computational fluid dynamics method, and the hydrodynamic analysis in the steady gliding motion is also executed.

Experimental results have shown that the dolphin-like glider could successfully glide depending on the pitching torques only from buoyancy-driven system and controllable fins without traditional internal moveable masses.

A hybrid underwater glider scheme that combines robotic dolphin and glider is firstly proposed, shedding light on the creation of innovation gliders with maneuverability and durability.

THERE is, however, one method of considering the problem theoretically which is given tentatively here. Assuming the helicopter has its blade angle reduced so that it will auto‐rotate, the power required to sustain the screw is given by equation (10). This power must be precisely the same as that expended in dropping at its normal velocity Vv because, considering an interval of time t, there is a certain difference of potential energy between the two machines—one hovering, the other descending. In the same time t, therefore, there must be an equivalent input of energy to sustain the helicopter to balance the difference in potential energy. We are considering now only airscrew horse‐power, not engine horse‐power. The power expended in dropping at Vv is WVv. Therefore we have or Put in another form by means of the previous equations:

This paper aims to provide a mathematical modeling and design of H-infinity controller for an autonomous vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) Quad Tiltrotor hybrid unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The variation in the aerodynamics and model dynamics of these aerial vehicles due to its tilting rotors are the key issues and challenges, which attracts the attention of many researchers. They carry parametric uncertainties (such as non-linear friction force, backlash, etc.), which drives the designed controller based on the nominal model to instability or performance degradation. The controller needs to take these factors into consideration and still give good stability and performance. Hence, a robust H-infinity controller is proposed that can handle these uncertainties.

A unique VTOL Quad Tiltrotor hybrid UAV, which operates in three flight modes, is mathematically modeled using Newton–Euler equations of motion. The contribution of the model is its ability to combine high-speed level flight, VTOL and transition between these two phases. The transition involves the tilting of the proprotors from 90° to 0° and vice-versa in 15° intervals. A robust H-infinity control strategy is proposed, evaluated and analyzed through simulation to control the flight dynamics for different modes of operation.

The main contribution of this research is the mathematical modeling of three flight modes (vertical takeoff–forward, transition–cruise-back, transition-vertical landing) of operation by controlling the revolutions per minute and tilt angles, which are independent of each other. An autonomous flight control system using a robust H-infinity controller to stabilize the mode of transition is designed for the Quad Tiltrotor UAV in the presence of uncertainties, noise and disturbances using MATLAB/SIMULINK. This paper focused on improving the disturbance rejection properties of the proposed UAV by designing a robust H-infinity controller for position and orientation trajectory regulation in the presence of uncertainty. The simulation results show that the Tiltrotor achieves transition successfully with disturbances, noise and uncertainties being present.

A novel VTOL Quad Tiltrotor UAV mathematical model is developed with a special tilting rotor mechanism, which combines both aircraft and helicopter flight modes with the transition taking place in between phases using robust H-infinity controller for attitude, altitude and trajectory regulation in the presence of uncertainty.

The problem of robotic co-manipulation is often addressed using impedance control based methods where the authors seek to establish a mathematical relation between the velocity of the human-robot interaction point and the force applied by the human operator (HO) at this point. This paper aims to address the problem of co-manipulation for handling tasks seen as a constrained optimal control problem.

The proposed point of view relies on the implementation of a specific online trajectory generator (OTG) associated with a kinematic feedback loop. This OTG is designed so as to translate the HO intentions to ideal trajectories that the robot must follow. It works as an automaton with two states of motion whose transitions are controlled by comparing the magnitude of the force to an adjustable threshold, in order to enable the operator to keep authority over the robot's states of motion.

To ensure the smoothness of the interaction, the authors propose to generate a velocity profile collinear to the force applied at the interaction point. The feedback control loop is then used to satisfy the requirements of stability and of trajectory tracking to guarantee assistance and operator security. The overall strategy is applied to the penducobot problem.

The approach stands out for the nature of the problem to be tackled (heavy load handling tasks) and for its vision on the co-manipulation. It is based on the implementation of two main ingredients. The first one lies in the online generation of an appropriate trajectory of the interaction point located at the end-effector and describing the HO intention. The other consists in the design of a control structure allowing a good tracking of the generated trajectory.

Most stereolithography systems use a blade to accomplish the recoating of the part being built with a new layer of resin. States the problems associated with this technique and describes experiments conducted to determine how recoating parameters should be controlled. Differentiates between recoating over an entirely solid substrate and over one consisting of solid and liquid, i.e. the “trapped volume” condition. Discusses parameter control for both of these conditions. Concludes that recoating is an important part of the stereolithography process which must be optimized to ensure accuracy of prototype parts.

To apply and simulate under different conditions, the combined model reference adaptive control (CMRAC) technique to control the pitch angle in a subsonic plane. Comparisons with the classical PID controller and the adaptive direct MRAC are also performed.

The methodology used in this work is the CMRAC. This is a relatively new adaptive control technique which combines the information coming from the identification procedure as well as that from the direct control scheme, and use it in the adaptive laws. The identification parameters and the controller parameters are simultaneously adjusted using the identification error, the control error and the so‐called close‐loop identification error. This combination has shown to improve the transient behavior of the adaptive systems.

This control scheme has been tested by simulation on a model of a CESSNA 182 plane, to control the pitch angle (longitudinal movement). The results have been compared with other control approaches such as the classical PID and the adaptive direct MRAC. Although the PID control satisfies all the control specifications as much as the CMRAC, it is not able to adapt when changes in the operating conditions occur, as in the case of the CMRAC. The direct MRAC does no perform well in this study.

The implementation at practical level remains to be studied and analyzed, to verify the theoretical and simulation results presented here.

The main advantage of the proposed method is that it behaves well even under different operating conditions, which is one of the most important characteristics for an implementation at practical level.

It is the first time in the control literature that the CMRAC is applied to control the pitch angle of a plane in a longitudinal movement. The results are quite promising remaining the practical implementation to verify the performance of the proposed scheme under real conditions.