Академический Документы
Профессиональный Документы
Культура Документы
AND CONTROL
INTRODUCTION
How well an airplane flies and how easily it can be controlled are subjects
studied in aircraft stability and control. By stability we mean the tendency of
the airplane to return to its equilibrium position after it has been disturbed.
The disturbance may be generated by the pilot's control actions or by
atmospheric phenomena. The atmospheric disturbances can be wind gusts,
wind gradients, or turbulent air. An airplane must have sufficient stability that
the pilot does not become fatigued by constantly having to control the airplane
owing to external disturbances.
Rolling The ailerons control the roll or lateral motion and are therefore
Pitching The elevator controls pitch or the longitudinal motion and thus is
often called the longitudinal control
Yawing The rudder controls yaw or the directional motion and thus is
called the directional control
STATIC STABILITY
Stability is a property of an equilibrium state. To discuss
stability we must first define what is meant by equilibrium. If an airplane is to
remain in steady uniform flight, the resultant force as well as the resultant
moment about the center of gravity must both be equal to zero. An airplane
satisfying this requirement is said to be in a state of equilibrium or flying at a
trim condition. On the other hand, if the forces and moments do not sum to
zero, the airplane will be subjected to translational and rotational
accelerations.
STATIC STABILITY
Statically stable. If the forces and moments on the body caused by a disturbance tend
initially to return the body toward its equilibrium position, the body is statically stable
Statically unstable. If the forces and moments are such that the body continues to move
away from its equilibrium position after being disturbed, the body is statically unstable
Neutrally stable If the body is disturbed but the moments remain zero, the body stays in
equilibrium and is neutrally stable
DYNAMIC STABILITY
A body is dynamically stable if, out of its own accord, it eventually returns to and
remains at its equilibrium position over a period of time. It is important to note that
static stability does not imply dynamic stability. The plane is dynamically unstable but
still statically stable
Dynamically unstable
after initially responding to its static stability, the airplane may oscillate with increasing
amplitude, as shown in Figure . Here, the equilibrium position is never maintained for any
period of time; the airplane in this case is dynamically unstable
LONGITUDINAL STATIC
STABILITY
If the airplane is flying at its trim angle of attack and suddenly encounters a disturbance
that causes it to pitch up or down (e.g., due to a wind gust), the moment will be such that
the plane will return to its equilibrium position. To see that, imagine a wind gust pitching
the plane up from ae to some larger a. By looking at the plot in Fig. , you can see that the
moment coefficient (and hence the moment) will be negative, which makes the plane pitch
down and return to equilibrium
CRITERION
To have static longitudinal stability
1. Cmo must be positive.
2. the aircraft pitching moment curve must have a negative slope, i.e.
dCm/dC <0
WING
TAIL etc
WING CONTRIBUTION
Wing contribution to the pitching moment:
If we sum the moments about the center of gravity, the following equation is
obtained:
TAIL CONTRIBUTION
There are two interference effects that influence the tail aerodynamics:
1. The airflow at the tail is deflected downward by the downwash due to the
finite wing i.e., the relative wind seen by the tail is
not in the same direction as the relative wind
V seen by the wing.
2. Due to the retarding force of skin friction and pressure drag over the wing,
the airflow reaching the tail has been slowed. Therefore, the velocity of the
relative wind seen by the tail is less than V
On simplifying,
EQUATIONS FOR
LONGITUDINAL STATIC
STABILITY
By definition, CM0 is the value of CM cg When a = 0, that is,when the lift is
zero. Substituting a= 0 into above equation we directly obtain
Consider now the slope of the moment coefficient curve. Differentiating total
moment equation w
ith respect to a, we obtain
Equation above shows that the static margin is a direct measure of longitudi
nal static stability. For static stability, the static margin must be positive.
Moreover, the larger the static margin, the more stable is the airplane.
LONGITUDINAL CONTROL
Control of an airplane can be achieved by providing an incremental lift force
on one or more of the airplane's lifting surfaces. The incremental lift force can
be produced by deflecting the entire lifting surface or by deflecting a flap
incorporated in the lifting surface. Owing to the fact that the control flaps or
movable lifting surfaces are located at some distance from the center of
gravity, the incremental lift force creates a moment about the airplane's center
of gravity. Figure below shows the three primary aerodynamic controls.
ELEVATOR EFFECTIVENESS
When the elevator is deflected, it changes the lift and pitching moment of
the airplane. The change in lift for the airplane can be expressed as follows
curve.
By simplifying, we get
DIRECTIONAL
STABILITY
Directional stability
The directional stability and control, deal with the equilibrium and its maintainability
about the z-axis
Static directional stability is a measure of the aircraft's resistance to slipping. To have
static directional stability, the appropriate positive or negative yawing moment should be
generated to compensate for a negative or positive sideslip angle .
The greater the static directional stability the quicker the aircraft will turn into a relative
wind which is not aligned with the longitudinal axis
Sideslip is the angle between the plane of symmetry of the airplane and the direction of
motion. It is taken as positive in the clockwise sense.
It is denoted by .
Contribution of wing to Cn
Consider an airplane with wings which have sweep . When this wing is subjected to sideslip
, the components of the free stream velocity
normal to the quarter chord line on the two wing halves will be unequal i.e. V cos( -) on the
right wing and V cos (+) on the left wing. Consequently, even if the two wing halves
are at the same angle of attack, they would experience unequal effective dynamic
pressures and their drags will be different. This will
cause a yawing moment.
The yawing moments due to the right and the left wing halves (Nw)r and (Nw)l are
Contribution of fuselage to Cn
A fuselage at an angle of attack produces a pitching moment and also contributes to
Cm. Similarly, a fuselage in sideslip produces a yawing moment and contributes to Cn
of the airplane.
However, in an airplane, the flow past a fuselage is influenced by the flow past the wing.
Hence, instead of an isolated fuselage, the contributions of wing and fuselage to Cn are
estimated together. It is denoted by Cnwf
kn is the wing body interference factor which depends on the following fuselage
parameters
(a) Length of fuselage (lf).
(b) Projected side area of fuselage (Sfs).
(c) Heights (h1and h2) of fuselage at lf/4 and 3lf/ 4
The quantity kRl is an empirical factor which depends on the Reynolds number of the
fuselage (Rlf= Vlf/)
Differentiating by gives
Rudder requirements
Adverse yaw
When an airplane is banked, in order to execute a turning maneuver, the ailerons may create
a yawing moment that opposes the turn (i.e. adverse yaw). The rudder must be able to
overcome the adverse yaw so that a coordinated turn can be achieved. The critical condition
for adverse yaw occurs when the airplane is flying slow (i.e. high CL)
Cross-wind landings
To maintain alignment with the runway during a crosswind landing requires the pilot to
fly the airplane at a sideslip angle. The rudder must be powerful enough to permit the
pilot to trim the airplane for the specified crosswinds. For transport airplanes, landing
may be carried out for cross-winds up to 15.5 m/s or 51 ft/s
The critical asymmetric power condition occurs for a multiengine airplane when one
engine fails at low flight speeds. The rudder must be able to overcome the yawing
moment produced by the asymmetric thrust arrangement
Spin recovery
The primary control for spin recovery in many airplanes is a powerful rudder. The
rudder must be powerful enough to oppose the spin rotation
The roll moment created on an airplane when it starts to sideslip depends upon wing
dihedral , wing sweep, position of the wing on the fuselage, and the vertical tail
Wing dihedral
The major contributor to Cl is the wing dihedral angle T. The dihedral angle is defined as the
span wise inclination of the wing with respect to the horizontal. If the wing tip is higher than
the root section, then the dihedral angle is positive; if the wing tip is lower than the root
section, then the dihedral angle is negative. A negative dihedral angle is commonly called
anhedral.
When an airplane is disturbed from a wings-level attitude, it will begin to sideslip . Once
the airplane starts to sideslip a component of the relative wind is directed toward the
side of the airplane. The leading wing experiences an increased angle of attack and
consequently an increase in lift. The trailing wing experiences the opposite effect. The
net result is a rolling moment that tries to bring the wing back to a wings-level attitude.
This restoring moment is often referred to as the "dihedral effect"
The additional lift created on the downward-moving wing is created by the change in angle
of attack produced by the side slipping motion. If we resolve the sideward velocity
component into components along and normal to the wing span the local change in angle of
attack can be estimated as
Wing sweep also contributes to the dihedral effect. In the case of a sweptback wing, the
windward wing has an effective decrease in sweep angle while the trailing wing experiences
an effective increase in sweep angle. For a given angle of attack, a decrease in sweepback
angle will result in a higher lift coefficient. Therefore, the windward wing (less effective
sweep) will experience more lift than the trailing wing. It can be concluded that sweepback
adds to the dihedral effect. On the other hand, sweep forward will decrease the effective
dihedral effect .
A simplified estimate of the wing sweep contribution to Clb is presented in Eq
Fuselage contribution
The sideward flow turns in the vicinity of the fuselage and creates a local change in wing
angle of attack at the inboard wing stations. For a low wing position, the fuselage
contributes a negative dihedral effect; the high wing produces a positive dihedral effect.
In order to maintain the same C,p a low-wing aircraft will require a considerably greater
wing dihedral angle than a high-wing configuration
The horizontal tail can also contribute to the dihedral effect in a manner similar to the wing.
However, owing to the size of the horizontal tail with respect to the wing, its contribution is
usually small.
The vertical tail
The contribution to dihedral effect from the vertical tail is produced by the side force on the
tail due to sideslip. The side force on the vertical tail produces both a yawing and a rolling
moment. The rolling moment occurs because the center of pressure for the vertical tail is
located above the aircraft's center of gravity. The rolling moment produced by the vertical tail
tends to bring the aircraft back to a wings-level attitude.
An estimate of the vertical tail contribution to Clb
ROLL CONTROL
Roll control is achieved by the differential deflection of small flaps called ailerons which are
The basic principle behind these devices is to modify the span wise lift distribution so that
a moment is created about the x axis
Spoilers when used for roll control are usually deflected on one side only.
High wing-sweep angles make spoilers and ailerons less effective.
Longitudinal modes
Oscillatingmotions can be described by two parameters, the period of time required for
one complete oscillation, and the time required to damp to half-amplitude, or the time to
double theamplitudefor a dynamically unstable motion.
Lateral-directional modes
"Lateral-directional" modes involve rolling motions and yawing motions.
Motions in one of these axes almost always couples into the other so the modes are
generally discussed as the "Lateral-Directional modes".
There are three types of possible lateral-directional dynamic motion:
1.roll subsidence mode,
2.spiral mode, and
3.Dutch roll mode
Directional divergence can occur when the airplane does not possess directional or
weathercock stability. If such an airplane is disturbed from its equilibrium state, it will
tend to rotate to ever-increasing angles of sideslip. Owing to the side force acting on the
airplane, it will fly a curved path at large sideslip angles. For an airplane that has lateral
static stability (i.e. dihedral effect) the motion can occur without any significant change
in bank angle . Obviously, such a motion cannot be tolerated and can readily be avoided
by proper design of the vertical tail surface to ensure directional stability
Spiral divergence is a non oscillatory divergent motion which can occur when directional
stability is large and lateral stability is small. When disturbed from equilibrium, the
airplane enters a gradual spiraling motion . The spiral becomes tighter and steeper as
time proceeds and can result in a high-speed spiral dive if corrective action is not taken.
This motion normally occurs so gradually that the pilot unconsciously corrects for it