Wake Vortex Modelling and Simulation for Air Vehicles in Close Formation Flight

The aim of this research is to develop realistic models of aer odynamic cross-coupling effects that can be incorporated in real-time or near real-time si ulations of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in close formation flight. These woul d permit the assessment of the risks and issues associated with wake vortex evolution a nd encounter and the analysis of their consequences on the design of automatic contro l systems and the development of safe and reliable operating procedures. A number of w ake vortex modelling techniques that can be used in formation flight simulations a re reviewed. A novel Wake Vortex Model (WVM) is developed, implemented, verified, val id ted and successfully integrated within a Matlab /Simulink simulation environment. The code, named ELL because it is based on Weissinger’s extended lifting line th eory, meets the following requirements: (i) it is generic and can easily be adapted to a cc modate any wing planform and air vehicle configuration; (ii) it is computational ly rapid enough to be used in real-time or near real-time simulations; (iii) and it is su fficiently representative to support studies of aerodynamic interaction between multiple a ir vehicles during formation reconfiguration and air-to-air refuelling simulations. Si mulink test scenarios of two Aerosonde UAVs are developed to test and validate the use of E LL within simulation models, and the simulation environment is interfaced with v isualisation tools in order to facilitate the evaluation of multiple air vehicle dynami c interaction.

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