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At least 19 records

A Fully Nonlinear, Dynamically Consistent Numerical Model for Solid-Body Ship Motion. I. Ship Motion with Fixed Heading

In this paper, we describe the details of our numerical model for simulating ship solidbody motion in a given environment. In this model, the fully nonlinear dynamical equations governing the time-varying solid-body ship motion under the forces arising from ship wave interactions are solved with given initial conditions. The net force and moment (torque) on the ship body are directly calculated via integration of the hydrodynamic pressure over the wetted surface and the buoyancy effect from the underwater volume of the actual ship hull with a hybrid finite-difference/finite-element method. Neither empirical nor free parametrization is introduced in this model, i.e. no a priori experimental data are needed for modelling. This model is benchmarked with many experiments of various ship hulls for heave, roll and pitch motion. In addition to the benchmark cases, numerical experiments are also carried out for strongly nonlinear ship motion with a fixed heading. These new cases demonstrate clearly the importance of nonlinearities in ship motion modelling.

Lin, Ray-Quing

The influence of ship motion of manual control skills

The effects of ship motion on a range of typical manual control skills were examined on the Warren Spring ship motion simulator driven in heave, pitch, and roll by signals taken from the frigate HMS Avenger at 13 m/s (25 knots) into a force 4 wind. The motion produced a vertical r.m.s. acceleration of 0.024g, mostly between 0.1 and 0.3 Hz, with comparatively little pitch or roll. A task involving unsupported arm movements was seriously affected by the motion; a pursuit tracking task showed a reliable decrement although it was still performed reasonably well (pressure and free moving tracking controls were affected equally by the motion); a digit keying task requiring ballistic hand movements was unaffected. There was no evidence that these effects were caused by sea sickness. The differing response to motion of the different tasks, from virtual destruction to no effect, suggests that a major benefit could come from an attempt to design the man/control interface onboard ship around motion resistant tasks.

Mcleod, P.

Ship motion pattern directed VTOL letdown guidance

This paper examines ship motion pattern directed letdown guidance strategies for landing a VTOL aircraft onboard a small aviation ship under adverse environmental conditions. Off-line computer simulation of the shipboard landing task is utilized for assessing the relative merits of the proposed guidance schemes. A sum of seventy sinusoids representation is used to model the ship motion time histories. The touchdown performance of a nonimal constant-rate-of-descent (CROD) letdown strategy serves as a benchmark for ranking the performance of the alternative letdown schemes.

Phatak, A. V.

Real time estimation and prediction of ship motions using Kalman filtering techniques

A landing scheme for landing V/STOL aircraft on rolling ships was sought using computerized simulations. The equations of motion as derived from hydrodynamics, their form and the physical mechanisms involved and the general form of the approximation are discussed. The modeling of the sea is discussed. The derivation of the state-space equations for the DD-963 destroyer is described. Kalman filter studies are presented and the influence of the various parameters is assessed. The effect of various modeling parameters on the rms error is assessed and simplifying conclusions are drawn. An upper bound for prediction time of about five seconds is established, with the exception of roll, which can be predicted up to ten seconds ahead.

Triantafyllou, M. A.

Real time estimation of ship motions using Kalman filtering techniques

The estimation of the heave, pitch, roll, sway, and yaw motions of a DD-963 destroyer is studied, using Kalman filtering techniques, for application in VTOL aircraft landing. The governing equations are obtained from hydrodynamic considerations in the form of linear differential equations with frequency dependent coefficients. In addition, nonminimum phase characteristics are obtained due to the spatial integration of the water wave forces. The resulting transfer matrix function is irrational and nonminimum phase. The conditions for a finite-dimensional approximation are considered and the impact of the various parameters is assessed. A detailed numerical application for a DD-963 destroyer is presented and simulations of the estimations obtained from Kalman filters are discussed.

Triantafyllou, M. S.

A summary of ship deck motion dynamics as applied to VSTOL aircraft

Ship deck motions are considered in terms of the landing/takeoff of V/STOL aircraft from small ships. Fluctuations in the air turbulence shed by the ship's superstructures, wind direction and velocity, and wind turbulence loads on the aircraft are among the factors discussed. Roll stabilization using antiroll tanks, fins, and rudders is covered.

Baitis, A. E.

Seakeeping considerations in the employment of V/STOL on Naval ships

Compatibility of Naval ships as V/STOL support platforms and the ship motions that V/STOL aircraft must endure are discussed. A methodology which evaluates the impact of motion criteria such as the maximum ship motion allowable during V/STOL landing/launch is presented. Emphasis is given to design alternatives that reduce ship motion.

Olson, S. R.

An investigation into the vertical axis control power requirements for landing VTOL type aircraft onboard nonaviation ships in various sea states

The problem of determining the vertical axis control requirements for landing a VTOL aircraft on a moving ship deck in various sea states is examined. Both a fixed-base piloted simulation and a nonpiloted simulation were used to determine the landing performance as influenced by thrust-to-weight ratio, vertical damping, and engine lags. The piloted simulation was run using a fixed-based simulator at Ames Research center. Simplified versions of an existing AV-8A Harrier model and an existing head-up display format were used. The ship model used was that of a DD963 class destroyer. Simplified linear models of the pilot, aircraft, ship motion, and ship air-wake turbulence were developed for the nonpiloted simulation. A unique aspect of the nonpiloted simulation was the development of a model of the piloting strategy used for shipboard landing. This model was refined during the piloted simulation until it provided a reasonably good representation of observed pilot behavior.

Stevens, M. E.

Multivariable control of VTOL aircraft for shipboard landing

The problem of the automatic landing of VTOL aircraft on small ships is considered. Linear quadratic optimal control theory is used to design a VTOL ship motion tracking controller. Optimal root-loci and step responses are obtained to study the dynamics of the closed-loop system. Standard deviations of the ship motion tracking errors, and of the VTOL control amplitudes are computed, illustrating the tradeoff between accurate tracking, and limited control authority. Multivariable robustness margins are also obtained. The tracking of the vertical motion presents the difficulty of requiring large variations of the VTOL total thrust, a control which is limited both in amplitude and in bandwidth. Lateral controls are less restricted, but the motions are strongly coupled, with some adverse couplings in the ship motions, and in the aircraft dynamics. The advantage of the LQ control theory is demonstrated however, by its ability to account for these couplings in a robust manner, and, when possible, to use them to limit the control amplitudes.

Bodson, M.

Lateral control system design for VTOL landing on a DD963 in high sea states

The problem of designing lateral control systems for the safe landing of VTOL aircraft on small ships is addressed. A ship model is derived. The issues of estimation and prediction of ship motions are discussed, using optimal linear linear estimation techniques. The roll motion is the most important of the lateral motions, and it is found that it can be predicted for up to 10 seconds in perfect conditions. The automatic landing of the VTOL aircraft is considered, and a lateral controller, defined as a ship motion tracker, is designed, using optimal control techniqes. The tradeoffs between the tracking errors and the control authority are obtained. The important couplings between the lateral motions and controls are demonstrated, and it is shown that the adverse couplings between the sway and the roll motion at the landing pad are significant constraints in the tracking of the lateral ship motions. The robustness of the control system, including the optimal estimator, is studied, using the singular values analysis. Through a robustification procedure, a robust control system is obtained, and the usefulness of the singular values to define stability margins that take into account general types of unstructured modelling errors is demonstrated. The minimal destabilizing perturbations indicated by the singular values analysis are interpreted and related to the multivariable Nyquist diagrams.

Bodson, M.

VTOL shipboard letdown guidance system analysis

Alternative letdown guidance strategies are examined for landing of a VTOL aircraft onboard a small aviation ship under adverse environmental conditions. Off line computer simulation of shipboard landing task is utilized for assessing the relative merits of the proposed guidance schemes. The touchdown performance of a nominal constant rate of descent (CROD) letdown strategy serves as a benchmark for ranking the performance of the alternative letdown schemes. Analysis of ship motion time histories indicates the existence of an alternating sequence of quiescent and rough motions called lulls and swells. A real time algorithms lull/swell classification based upon ship motion pattern features is developed. The classification algorithm is used to command a go/no go signal to indicate the initiation and termination of an acceptable landing window. Simulation results show that such a go/no go pattern based letdown guidance strategy improves touchdown performance.

Phatak, A. V.

Model development for automatic guidance of a VTOL aircraft to a small aviation ship

This paper describes a detailed mathematical model which has been assembled to study automatic approach and landing guidance concepts to bring a VTOL aircraft onto a small aviation ship. The model is used to formulate system simulations which in turn are used to evaluate different guidance concepts. Ship motion (Sea State 5), wind-over-deck turbulence, MLS-based navigation, implicit model following flight control, lift fan V/STOL aircraft, ship and aircraft instrumentation errors, various steering laws, and appropriate environmental and human factor constraints are included in the model. Results are given to demonstrate use of the model and simulation to evaluate performance of the flight system and to choose appropriate guidance techniques for further cockpit simulator study.

Goka, T.

Real time estimation of the heaving and pitching motions of a ship, using a Kalman filter

In the present study the estimation of the heave and pitch motion of a ship is considered, using Kalman filtering techniques. A significant part of the study is devoted to constructing appropriate models for the sea and the ship. The governing equations are obtained from hydrodynamic considerations in the form of linear differential equations with frequency dependent coefficients. In addition, nonminimum phase characteristics are obtained due to the spatial integration of the water wave forces. The resulting transfer matrix function is irrational and nonminimum phase. The conditions for a finite-dimensional approximation are considered and the impact of the various parameters is assessed. A numerical application is considered for a DD-963 destroyer.

Triantafyllou, M.

Review of US Navy VSTOL handling qualities requirements

Handling qualities requirements for V/STOL operations from small ships are considered in terms of the ship operating environment. Turbulence, wind over the deck, ship motion, visibility, and severe weather and sea conditions are among the factors discussed.

Hutchings, D. E.

Evaluation of the navigation performance of shipboard-VTOL-landing guidance systems

The objective of this study was to explore the performance of a VTOL aircraft landing approach navigation system that receives data (1) from either a microwave scanning beam (MSB) or a radar-transponder (R-T) landing guidance system, and (2) information data-linked from an aviation facility ship. State-of-the-art low-cost-aided inertial techniques and variable gain filters were used in the assumed navigation system. Compensation for ship motion was accomplished by a landing pad deviation vector concept that is a measure of the landing pad's deviation from its calm sea location. The results show that the landing guidance concepts were successful in meeting all of the current Navy navigation error specifications, provided that vector magnitude of the allowable error, rather than the error in each axis, is a permissible interpretation of acceptable performance. The success of these concepts, however, is strongly dependent on the distance measuring equipment bias. In addition, the 'best possible' closed-loop tracking performance achievable with the assumed point-mass VTOL aircraft guidance concept is demonstrated.

Mcgee, L. A.

VTOL control for shipboard landing in high sea states

A control algorithm is developed for a VTOL type aircraft landing on a small ship in rough seas. The work covers modelling the dynamics of the two vehicles, the design of an aircraft-tracking-ship-motion controller, and the specification of an actual landing control algorithm. The landing controller design is more practical and found to perform better than the hover controller. In addition to outlining a design technique, the results provide design guidelines and performance bounds for practical landing control systems.

Mcmuldroch, C. G.