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Fluidic Thrust Vectoring Actuator Modelling and

Control
S M Ahmad
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering
Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology
Topi, Swabi, KPK, Pakistan
Email: smahmad@giki.edu.pk

Abstract Fluidic thrust vectoring (FTV) control is an


innovative technique employed to affect the pitch control of an
aircraft (or a UAV) in absence of conventional control surfaces
such as elevator. The main motivation in using FTV is to render
the aircraft low observable. In this work a co-flow type of FTV
concept is investigated using a FTV test rig. In that the primary
jet representing exhaust jet from an air vehicles propulsive
element, is deflected by injection of a high velocity secondary jet
into the boundary layer of the primary jet. A thorough modelling
of FTV actuator is presented followed by implementation of
feedback loop for a precise control of the jet deflection angle

control of the vectored jet deflection angle is accomplished via


implementation of a feedback control.

KeywordsFluidic thrust vectoring; unmanned air vehicles;


modelling;FTV control.

There are different types of fluidic thrust vectoring that


have been reported in the literature such as co-flow, counter
flow and shock thrust vectoring. All the three types requires
injection of a secondary jet into the main or primary jet in
order to deflect the primary jet to a desired angle thereby
effecting the pitch control. In co-flow momentum is
introduced whereas in counter-flow momentum is removed via
secondary jet thereby controlling the primary jet.

I.

INTRODUCTION

The primary objective of unmanned air vehicles (UAVs)


when it was first introduced couple of decades ago was mainly
surveillance or information gathering. In particular for
missions which were dull, dirty and dangerous for a manned
flight. However with the rapid advent of technology and
increasing complex mission requirements has led to
emergence of stealth UAVs. Stealth characteristics can be
achieved by either using special grade of allows/materials in a
conventional airframe or through innovative air vehicle design
and novel flow control techniques. The work reported in here
is concerned with the latter approach. A number of military
aircraft have employed mechanical thrust vectoring (MTV)
[1,2] for instance F-22 Raptor, X-44 MANTA (Multi Axis No
Tail Aircraft), X-31 [3], F-18 HARV[4] and F-16 [5]. MTV is
utilised to reduce the radar cross section (RCS) by eliminating
the need of conventional aerodynamic control surfaces for
pitch control. MTV is also used to augment the conventional
control surfaces effectiveness. Whereas in the UAV category
novel flow control concept has been investigated by number of
authors recently. In particular the fluidic thrust vectoring
(FTV) [6,7] concept has gained considerable interest due to
certain advantages over MTV. A consortium of 9 British
Universities have collaborated to demonstrate novel flow
control techniques such as FTV and Circulation Control on a
prototype vehicle referred as DEMON [8].
In this work a co-flow thrust vectoring concept is
investigated with an aim to develop a normal thrust force so as
to generate sufficient pitching torque for a representative
UAV. A FTV test rig is utilized as a test bed to study
modelling aspects of the FTV actuator. Subsequently precise

The remainder of paper is organized as follows: thrust


vectoring concept is introduced in section 2 followed by
experimental test set up description in section 3. FTV
characterization is given in section 4 and closed loop control
of FTV plant is demonstrated in section 5. The paper is
concluded in section 5.
II.

THRUST VECTORING

A. Co-flow fluidic thrust vectoring


The co-flow concept is illustrated in Figure 1 which
utilizes a solid curved surface near the exit of the secondary
jet. A moving fluid has a tendency to attach itself when
brought into close proximity of a curved convex surface. This
phenomenon is referred as the Coanda effect [9] and is
exploited to achieve thrust vectoring of the primary jet
emanating from the jet engine.

Fig. 1. Schematic illustrating co-flow thrust


vectoring principle
From the geometry of Figure 1 it is noted that as the
secondary jet attaches itself to the upper Coanda surface a net

resultant thrust vector force FZ ,tv is generated on the curved


surface in the downward direction. This in turn will be able to
produce a pitching moment about the c.g of the UAV thereby
making it possible for the vehicle to be trimmed during the
flight. The force in the normal direction FZ ,tvis obtained via
pressure tappings mounted on the Coanda surface and
connected to a data acquisition system. The resultant thrust
FXo force is computed from Mach number and cross sectional
area of the primary jet. Defining a dimensionless thrust vector
coefficient Cz as the ratio of normal force to resultant thrust:

CZ

FZ tv
FXo

While the thrust vector angle


coefficient by

tv

is related to thrust

FZ tv

FXo

tv sin 1 C Z sin 1
III.

EXPERIMENTAL SET UP

The schematic of experimental set up is shown in Figure 2.


Instead of using exhaust jet of an aircraft engine, the scenario
is simulated in the laboratory test environment using
compressed air. Compressed air reservoir mimics the aircraft
engine with two distinct paths for the flow of exhaust gases
(compressed air). The primary flow path, i.e., air passing
through a convergent section of a high aspect ratio rectangular
nozzle, represents the main exhaust jet and the secondary air
path is derived as a bleed from the aircraft engine (air
reservoir). This is termed as cold tests environment as opposed
to using actual jet engines or the hot tests which requires
abundance of experience in handling high speed and high
temperature jet engines. Safety of personnel and suitability of
materials for conducting such tests needs thorough
consideration.
The test rig is connected to Data Acquisition System that
facilitates two way communications between the sensors,
actuators and LabView graphical user interface environment

installed on a desktop computer. Therefore readings of various


pressure sensors can be viewed in real time as well as
command signal to the actuators can also be issued from the
computer. Thus enabling real time operation of the test rig.
A. Secondary jet valve characterisation
The FTV plant comprises of a proportional pressure
control valve (PPCV) or an actuator that regulates the flow of
secondary nozzle and the primary jet mechanism. Together
they form a FTV nozzle. The characterization of these two
elements is imperative from closed-loop control perspective.
The operating condition is that of Primary Nozzle Pressure
Ratio (NPRp) =1.6 that corresponds to a completely expanded
jet exit Mach number of 0.8 and reflects a realistic operating
flight condition. The secondary valve dynamics is obtained by
application of a step input and observing the corresponding
system response. The actuator dynamics is deduced to be of a
first order with a time constant of 0.2 seconds.
B. FTV nozzle characterisation
In order to gain appreciation of FTV plants dynamic and
static behaviour, a number of experiments were carried out.
The usual step input excitation of the system yielded the
systems time constant. However the main focus was on the
static nozzle characterization. The system was excited with a
series of varying NPRs signal and the corresponding primary
jet deflections were recorded for each steady state conditions.
The input-output behaviour is depicted in Figure 3, this
shows that for a low blowing coefficient defined as

C NPRs / NPRp , the jet deflection is zero, that is the


plant behaviour characterized by a dead-zone nonlinearity and
therefore no control of the primary jet is possible. As the
blowing coefficient increased and NPRs exceed the NPRp, the
Coanda effect becomes prominent. At this point the inputoutput relationship falls in the linear region and a change in
actuator input results in a proportional change in angular
deflection of the primary jet. Finally a saturation region is
reached indicating no change in jet deflection angle
irrespective of increase in C.

Fig. 2. FTV test rig schematic

The objective of the modelling exercise is to enable


application of linear control theory to the FTV plant. As such
linear region B in Fig. 3 is of interest and will be the focus of
the next section.

short rise time consistent with the dynamic


capabilities of the TV actuator and available control
energy.

The system operating condition is represented by NPRp of


1.6 and maximum actuation limit dictated by maximum NPRs
of 3. The feedback loop is to be designed commensurate with
the given system operating point and stated performance
specification.
In here classical two term proportional-integral (PI)
controller is considered bearing in mind not only its evaluation
in the simulation environment but also ease of implementation
in real time on a dedicated hardware.

Fig. 3. FTV system characteristic


IV.

CLOSED-LOOP CONTROL

Analytical FTV plant model obtained in the previous


section is utilized for plant dynamic study, system simulation
and design of feedback control laws. The architecture of FTV
plant model along with the feedback loop is illustrated in
Figure 4

A. Real time control


Various PI controllers were designed and simulated in the
SIMULINK simulation environment. Iteratively designed
controllers were implemented on the test rig. Some initial
results obtained from the rig are presented here. Note that 1
Volt reference command translates to approximately 15
degrees of primary jet deflection angle. Whereas 1 Volt
command input to PPCV actuator corresponds approximately
to a NPRs of 1. Figure 5 illustrates reference or command
tracking of the desired primary jet angle cmd to a multi-step
input command. The output follows the given command
trajectory quite well albeit a bit noisy response is noted. The
corresponding actuator activity is shown in Figure 6 with no
sign of saturation of the control valve.

Fig. 4. Feedback loop for the FTV system


A. Controller perferomance specifications and design
Although there are nonlinearities associated in the plant
dynamics its effect is ignored in this study thus enabling
utilization of well-established linear control theory. The
controller K is expected to satisfy a desired performance
specification consisting of:

tracking of commanded jet deflection, angle with


low overshoot and quick settling time.

closed-loop stability and good disturbance rejection


capability.

Fig. 5. Command tracking of primary jet angle

Aerospace and Civil Engineering, University of Manchester,


UK.
REFERENCES
[1] B. Gal Or, Vectored propulsion, supermaneuverability
and robotic aircraft, Springer, Verlag, 1989.
[2] B. Gal Or, Fundamental concept of vectored propulsion,
Journal of Propulsion, Vol 6, 1990.
[3] C.W. Alcorn, M.A. Croom, M.S. Francis, and H. Ross,
The X-31 aircraft: advances in aircraft agility and
performance, Progress in Aerospace Sciences, Vol 32, pp
377-413, 1996.
[4] A. Bowers, and J. Pahle, Thrust vectoring on the NASA
F-18 high alpha research vehicle,. NASA TM-4771, 1996.

Fig. 6. Actuator control activity

V.

CONCLUSIONS

A novel FTV actuator concept for a low observable UAV is


presented along with experimental studies of the same. In
particular modelling and control of FTV test bed is considered
for a representative flight vehicle. The FTV systems static
and dynamic models are obtained via experiments. The
developed models are utilised for controller synthesis as well
control laws evaluation in simulation and on the test rig. A
reasonable tracking of reference trajectory was achieved
demonstrating the utility of co-flow FTV as a potential
actuating mechanism for pitch control of a UAV. The FTV
concept presented in this paper is similar to one implemented
on a demonstrator UAV called DEMON, developed under a
BAE/EPSRC funded research programme named FLAVIIR
(Flapless Air Vehicle Integrated Industrial Research) [8].
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
A part of the study was conducted by the author while
working as a Research Associate in the School of Mechanical

[5] J. Vickers, Propulsion analysis of the F-16 multi axis


thrust vectoring aircraft,4th High Alpa Conference, Edwards,
CA, NASA CP-10143, 1994.
[6] M. S. Mason, and W. J. Crowther, Fluidic thrust
vectoring of low observable aircraft, CEAS Aerospace
Aerodynamic Research Conference, 10-12 June, Cambridge,
UK, 2002.
[7] R. Sparks, S. Michie, K. Gill W. J. Crowther, and
N.J.Wood, Development of an integrated circulation control
and fluidic thrust vectoring flight test demonstrator, 1st
International Conference on Innovation and Integration in
Aerospace Sciences, 2005.
[8] P. Woods, FLAVIIR- An integrated programme of
research for unmanned aerial vehicles, 3rd AIAA Flow
Control Conference, 5-8 June, San Francisco, California,
2006.
[9] T. Panitz and D. T. Wasan, Flow attachment to solid
surfaces: the Coanda effect, AIChE Journal, Vol 18, No.1, pp
51-57, 1972.

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