The development of a mathematical model of a hybrid airship

2012-11-19The mathematical model of a winged hybrid airship is developed for the analysis of its dynamic stability characteristics. A full nonlinear equation of motion that describes the dynamics of the hybrid airship is determined and for completeness, some of the components in the equations are estimated using the appropriate methods that has been established and used in the past. Adequate assumptions are made in order to apply any relevant computation and estimation methods. While this hybrid airship design is unique, its modeling and stability analysis were done according to the typical procedure of conventional airships and aircrafts. All computations pertaining to the hybrid airship’s equation of motion are carried out and any issues related to the integration of the wing to the conventional airship design are discussed in this thesis. The design of the hybrid airship is also slightly modified to suit the demanding requirement of a complete and feasible mathematical model. Then, linearization is performed under a chosen trim condition, and eigenvalue analysis is carried out to determine the general dynamic stability characteristics of the winged hybrid airship. The result shows that the winged hybrid airship possesses dynamic instability in longitudinal pitch motion and lateral-directional slow roll motion. This is due to the strong coupling between the aerostatic lift from the buoyant gas and aerodynamic lift from the wing