Simulation in the Loop Control of a Planar Hypersonic Wing with a Rigid Control Surface

Simulation in the Loop Control of a Planar Hypersonic Wing with a Rigid Control Surface

There have been significant advances in sustained hypersonic flight technologies. Hypersonic vehicles are now considered for sustained atmospheric flight, for example accelerators in access to space systems or for high speed transport applications. All these applications require effective and robust control surfaces, mechanical actuators, and appropriate control strategies to ensure efficient flight trajectories can be followed. Hardware-in-the-Loop-Simulation (HiLS) is an approach that allows the assessment of different control approaches (controllers, actuators, control surfaces) through simulation, reducing the need for costly experiments and flight tests. This paper presents the development of a HiLS set-up targeted at analysing control systems in hypersonic flows. The simualtion component is created using the time accurate hypersonic CFD solver Eilmer, which has been modified to also predict the dynamic response of test hardware. To verify the HiLS capability a pivoted flat plate, which has been tested as part of previous control experiments at Mach 5.9 is simulated. Analysis of verification tests, with control inputs that match experimental settings shows that the simulation setup can appropriately re-create the correct dynamic responses for the controlled plate. Next, the HiLS tool is used to analyse different control approaches. These simulations confirm that simple acceleration based control is not adequate to control the pivoting plate. Next, a new P-D-DD controller, incorporating an additional second derivative term is evaluated. The result is a response with reduced over-shoot and control of the plate at the target angle. This work confirms the ability of the CFD solver to be used as part of a HiLS set-up. The work also demonstrates the benefits of HiLS in for the design of controllers for hypersonic applications.

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