Title: Study of air-cushion system modelling for semi-track air-cushion vehicle body attitude control

Authors: Dong Xie; Zhe Luo; Fan Yu

Addresses: School of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China ' School of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China ' School of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China

Abstract: To investigate the body attitude control for a semi-track air-cushion vehicle (STACV), a multi-air-cushions design scheme is adopted. Based on the experimental study of the developed single air-cushion (1-AC) STACV prototype along with its computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation, a two air-cushions (2-AC) configuration with controllable orifice valves is mainly examined for the pitch control of the STACV in this paper. Firstly, the relationships among the input air total pressure, the air-cushion forces, and air-cushion system related parameters are obtained according to the relevant testing and CFD simulations from the 1-AC system. Then, the relationships among the controllable orifice valve diameters, fan rotational speed and generated air-cushion pressures of the 2-AC system are acquired using CFD simulations. Finally, the forward and reverse air-cushion system models are established by neural network. This method can be used as a reference in future body attitude control of the STACV with more air-cushions.

Keywords: STACV; semi-track air cushion vehicles; air cushion system modelling; CFD; computational fluid dynamics; neural networks; vehicle body attitude control; simulation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJVD.2014.064370

International Journal of Vehicle Design, 2014 Vol.66 No.1, pp.1 - 19

Accepted: 15 Feb 2013
Published online: 30 Oct 2014 *

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