Flight Dynamics Analyses of a Propeller-Driven Airplane (II): Building a High-Fidelity Mathematical Model and Applications

• Published in: International journal of aeronautical and space sciences Vol. 15; no. 4; pp. 356 - 365
• Main Authors: Kim, Chang-Joo, Kim, Sang Ho, Park, TaeSan, Park, Soo Hyung, Lee, Jae Woo, Ko, Joon Soo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 한국항공우주학회 01.12.2014
• Subjects: 항공우주공학
• ISSN: 2093-274X; 2093-2480
• DOI: 10.5139/IJASS.2014.15.4.356

This paper is the second in a series and aims to build a high-fidelity mathematical model for a propeller-driven airplaneusing the propeller’s aerodynamics and inertial models, as developed in the first paper. It focuses on aerodynamic modelsfor the fuselage, the main wing, and the stabilizers under the influence of the wake trailed from the propeller. For this,application of the vortex lattice method is proposed to reflect the propeller’s wake effect on those aerodynamic surfaces. Byconsidering the maneuvering flight states and the flow field generated by the propeller wake, the induced velocity at any pointon the aerodynamic surfaces can be computed for general flight conditions. Thus, strip theory is well suited to predict thedistribution of air loads over wing components and the viscous flow effect can be duly considered using the 2D aerodynamiccoefficients for the airfoils used in each wing. These approaches are implemented in building a high-fidelity mathematicalmodel for a propeller-driven airplane. Flight dynamic analysis modules for the trim, linearization, and simulation analyseswere developed using the proposed techniques. The flight test results for a series of maneuvering flights with a scaled modelwere used for comparison with those obtained using the flight dynamics analysis modules to validate the usefulness of thepresent approaches. The resulting good correlations between the two data sets demonstrate that the flight characteristics ofthe propeller-driven airplane can be analyzed effectively through the integrated framework with the propeller and airframeaerodynamic models proposed in this study. KCI Citation Count: 6