Flexible Flight Vehicle Transfer Function Factors for Use in Autopilot Preliminary Design

摘要

This report presents a series of charts of forward-loop transfer function poles and zeroes for a general flight vehicle having both rigid and elastic longitudinal degrees of freedom. These charts allow an assessment to be made, early in the design of an autopilot-airframe system, of the influence of flexibility and modal interaction upon the system's dynamic response. In addition to the numerical approach made possible by this report, the charts and accompanying theory provide a technical foundation for understanding the cause-and-effect relationship between the design and the dynamic behavior of a flexible flight vehicle. A method of interpolation between charts also results from the theory presented and permits application of the design chart data to a multitude of flexible flight vehicle configurations. (Author)