Search Results

This paper describes an approach to integrating high-fidelity vehicle dynamics with a high-fidelity gaming engine, specifically with respect to terrain. The work is motivated by the experimental need to have both high-fidelity visual content with high-fidelity vehicle dynamics to drive a motion base simulator. To utilize a single source of terrain information, the problem requires the just-in-time sharing of terrain content between the gaming engine and the dynamics model. The solution is implemented as a client-server with the gaming engine acting as a stateless server and the dynamics acting as the client. The client is designed to actively maintain a locally cashed terrain grid around the vehicle and actively refresh it by polling the server in an on-demand mode of operation. The paper discusses the overall architecture, the protocol, the server, and the client designs. A practical implementation is described and shown to effectively function in real-time.

Tanks play a pivotal role in swiftly deploying firepower across dynamic battlefields. The core of tank mobility lies within their powertrains, driven by diesel engines or gas turbines. To better understand the benefits of each power system, this study uses geo-location data from the National Training Center to understand the power and energy requirements from a main battle tank over an 18-day rotation. This paper details the extraction, cleaning, and analysis of the geo-location data to produce a series of representative drive cycles for an NTC rotation. These drive-cycles serve as a basis for evaluating powertrain demands, chiefly focusing on fuel efficiency. Notably, findings reveal that substantial idling periods in tank operations contribute to diesel engines exhibiting notably lower fuel consumption compared to gas turbines. Nonetheless, gas turbines present several merits over diesel engines, notably an enhanced power-to-weight ratio and superior power delivery.

In recent years, the increasing complexity of modern aerospace systems has driven the rapid adoption of robust Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE). MBSE is a development methodology centered around computational models, which are instrumental in supporting the design and analysis of intricate systems. In this context, the Architecture Analysis and Design Language (AADL) and Systems Modeling Language (SysML) are two prominent modeling languages for specifying and analyzing the structure and behavior of a cyber-physical system. Both languages have their own specific use cases and tool environments and are typically employed to model different aspects of system design. Although multiple software tools are available for transforming models from one language to another, their effectiveness is limited by fundamental differences in the semantics of each language.

Materials play a key role in our day to day life and have shaped the industrial revolution to a great extent. Right selection of material for meeting a particular objective is the key to success in today’s world where the cost as well as sustainability of any equipment or a system have assumed greater significance than ever before. In automotive industry, materials have a definitive role as far as the mobility and safety is concerned. Materials that can absorb the required energy or impact can be manufactured through different manufacturing as well as metallurgical processes which involves appropriate heat treatment and bringing correct chemical compositions etc. However, they can also be formed by simpler methods such as combining certain materials together in the form of layered combinations to form light weight composites.

Fuel tank is considered as safety component in the vehicle, and it has to be tested to meet the safety requirements as per AIS 095. Earlier, fuel tanks were manufactured by using Hot dipped cold rolled steel material and the weld zones are applied with Anti-corrosive coating. Few fuel tanks were reported with Corrosion problems. The root cause analysis was carried out considering the raw material, manufacturing process, transpiration, storage and usage. As an improvement, the new fuel tank is designed to eliminate the limitations of the existing fuel tank. 3D modeling was done to check space and mounting requirement in the layout and used for volume calculations. FE analysis was performed to check structural stability. Emphasis given on Interchange-ability to cater the new fuel tanks in place of old as spares requirement. The fuel tank has developed with Alumina steel material.

Fatigue analysis of pistons is reliant on an accurate representation of the high temperatures to which they are exposed. It can be difficult to represent this accurately, because instrumented tests to validate piston thermal models typically include only measurements near the piston crown and there are many unknown backside heat transfer coefficients (HTCs). Previously, a methodology was proposed to aid in the estimation of HTCs for backside convection boundary conditions of a stratified charge compression ignition (SCCI) piston. This methodology relies on Bayesian inference of backside HTC using a co-simulation between computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and finite element analysis (FEA) solvers. Although this methodology primarily utilizes the more computationally efficient FEA model for the iterations in the calibration, this can still be a computationally expensive process.

Abstract This article describes the research work taken to compare the effect of air blast and surface-buried mine blast loading on an armored fighting vehicle (AFV) escape hatch, using the coupled Eulerian-Lagrangian (CEL) technique. Two types of escape hatch were considered for the study, namely, the flat plate version and double-side curved-plate version. To evaluate the research methodology used in this investigation, initially, a published experimental work on a circular plate subjected to air blast was chosen and a benchmark simulation was carried out using the CEL technique to establish the simulation procedure. Then the established procedure was utilized for further analysis. It was observed that the variation in the deformation between the published literature and the simulation work was well within the acceptable engineering limits.

Abstract An accurate Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) Flight Dynamics Model (FDM) allows us to design its efficient controller in early development phases and to increase safety while reducing costs. Flight tests are normally conducted for a pre-established number of flight conditions, and then mathematical methods are used to obtain the FDM for the entire flight envelope. For our UAS-S4 Ehecatl, 216 local FDMs corresponding to different flight conditions were utilized to create its Local Linear Scheduled Flight Dynamics Model (LLS-FDM). The initial flight envelope data containing 216 local FDMs was further augmented using interpolation and extrapolation methodologies, thus increasing the number of trimmed local FDMs of up to 3,642. Relying on this augmented dataset, the Support Vector Machine (SVM) methodology was used as a benchmarking regression algorithm due to its excellent performance when training samples could not be separated linearly.

Abstract In this article, a formation flying technique designed for a multiple unmanned aerial vehicles (multi-UAV) system to provide low-cost and efficient solution for civilian and military applications is presented. First, a modular leader-follower formation algorithm was developed to accomplish the formation flying with off-the-shelf low-cost components and sensors. Second, a proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller was utilized for velocity control of the UAVs to maintain the tight formation. Third, a particle swarm optimization-optimized reciprocal velocity obstacles (PSO-RVO) algorithm was utilized for obstacles avoidance and collision avoidance between the UAVs while navigating, with the aid of sonar ranging sensors onboard. The formation flying algorithm developed was tested through both simulation and experiment using two quadcopters with global positioning system (GPS) signals.

Engineering Events staff at SAE International in Warrendale, Pennsylvania, have extended the call for abstracts through September 21 for the organization’s AeroTech aerospace and defense technology conference, which will take place at the Fort Worth Convention Center in Fort Worth, Texas, March 14-16, 2023. Visit the AeroTech call for abstracts page for more information and to get started.