We consider the Entry Descent and Landing problem for a vehicle equipped with an unpowered rotary decelerator, having Mars as planetary target. We aim at computing an optimal blade pitch profile to maximize the overall decelerating effect exerted by the rotor. To this end, we set up an optimization problem with one state variable (the altitude) specified at an unknown terminal time, with the landing speed as the objective function to be minimized. Results show the effectiveness of the proposed approach in reducing the terminal velocity with respect to what achieved when using simple constant pitch settings, by more than 10 m/s. © 2018 Univelt Inc. All rights reserved.
Dario Modenini, M.Z. (2018). Optimal blade pitch profile for an autorotative entry vehicle. Univelt.
Optimal blade pitch profile for an autorotative entry vehicle
Dario Modenini
;Marco Zannoni;Paolo Tortora
2018
Abstract
We consider the Entry Descent and Landing problem for a vehicle equipped with an unpowered rotary decelerator, having Mars as planetary target. We aim at computing an optimal blade pitch profile to maximize the overall decelerating effect exerted by the rotor. To this end, we set up an optimization problem with one state variable (the altitude) specified at an unknown terminal time, with the landing speed as the objective function to be minimized. Results show the effectiveness of the proposed approach in reducing the terminal velocity with respect to what achieved when using simple constant pitch settings, by more than 10 m/s. © 2018 Univelt Inc. All rights reserved.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
