Parameterized Design and Dynamic Analysis of a Reusable Launch Vehicle Landing System with Semi-Active Control

Abstract

Reusable launch vehicles (RLVs) are a solution for effective and economic transportation in future aerospace exploration. However, RLVs are limited to being used under simple landing conditions (small landing velocity and angle) due to their poor adaptability and the high rocket acceleration of current landing systems. In this paper, an adaptive RLV landing system with semi-active control is proposed. The proposed landing system can adjust the damping forces of primary strut dampers through semi-actively controlled currents in accordance with practical landing conditions. A landing dynamic model of the proposed landing system is built. According to the dynamic model, an light and effective RLV landing system is parametrically designed based on the response surface methodology. Dynamic simulations validate the proposed landing system under landing conditions including the highest rocket acceleration and the greatest damper compressions. The simulation results show that the proposed landing system with semi-active control has better landing performance than current landing systems that use passive liquid or liquid–honeycomb dampers. Additionally, the flexibility and friction of the structure are discussed in the simulations. Compared to rigid models, flexible models decrease rocket acceleration by 51% and 54% at the touch down moments under these two landing conditions, respectively. The friction increases rocket acceleration by less than 1%. However, both flexibility and friction have little influence on the distance between the rocket and ground, or the compression strokes of the dampers.

Multibody Systems with Flexible Elements

“…The statistics of papers called for this Special Issue, related to published or rejected items, are as follows [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23]: 26 total submissions, of which 15 were published (57.6%) and 11 rejected (42.3%). The authors geographical distribution is shown in Table 1, and it can be seen that the 38 authors are from 9 different countries.…”

A novel cable-net buffer device for recovering reusable launch vehicle: Design, dynamic modeling, and performance analysis

“…Wang et al 23 constructed a landing dynamic model of the first stage equipped with spring-damp supporting legs, and investigated the stability boundary of the landing performance with respect to the first stage's attitude angle and horizontal velocity. Wang et al 24 proposed a kind of adaptive supporting leg for the first stage with semi-active control function, and investigated the soft landing performance based on the rigid-flexible coupling dynamic method. Therefore, he proved that the performance of this supporting leg is better than that of the traditional honeycomb buffer legs.…”

Method of an Asymptotic Analysis of the Nonlinear Monotonic Stability of the Oscillation at the Problem of Damping of the Angle of Attack of a Symmetric Spacecraft

“…The paper [9] proposed an adaptive landing system for a reusable launch vehicle with semi-active control units. The landing system under consideration can adjust the damping forces of the shock absorbers of the struts by means of semi-actively adjustable currents according to practical landing conditions.…”