Dynamic analysis of airships with small deformations

• Published in: RoMoCo'02 : proceedings of the third International Workshop on Robot Motion and Control pp. 209 - 215
• Main Authors: Azouz, N., Bestaoui, Y., Lemaitre, O.
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 2002
• Subjects: Automotive engineering; Capacitive sensors; Deformable models; Differential equations; Finite element methods; Fluid dynamics; Lagrangian functions; Tensile stress; Underwater vehicles; Vehicle dynamics
• ISBN: 9788371434297; 8371434294
• DOI: 10.1109/ROMOCO.2002.1177109

The theory of modelling and control of airships was mostly imported from the fields of science and engineering of underwater vehicles. However the main hypothesis of rigidity of the structure may be improved to take into account the flexibility of the hull of an airship. We present an approach for analysing dynamic elastic deformable airships in an ideal fluid. Our model uses the updated Lagrangian method in combination with a large displacement and small deformation (Green) strain tensor formulation. Analogy is made with classical structural dynamics. The description of the behaviour of the airship consists of a continuous differential equation that is solved using a Rayleigh-Ritz technique combined with the finite element method. The method proposes also to take into account the coupling between the rigid body motion and the deformation as well as the interaction and coupling with the fluid surrounding.