On Flight Dynamics of Magnus Rotors

Abstract

A Magnus rotor is an autorotating flight vehicle, designed to develop a Magnus force efficiently and to employ it as the major lift force in free flight. The equations of motion of Magnus rotors are derived and their performance and stability analyzed and correlated with free flight tests. Necessary and sufficient conditions for limit cycles are derived, and it is shown how limit cycles can be avoided by proper design of the Magnus rotor. Thirty models were flight tested. Their trajectories and attitude motions are correlated with computer simulations whose aerodynamic input data are solely based on wind tunnel tests. The agreement is satisfactory. Two different Magnus shapes were tested for limit cycles. The test results agree well with predictions.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Nov 01, 1970
Accession Number
AD0716345

Entities

People

  • Peter H. Zipfel

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Aircrafts
  • Angular Momentum
  • Complex Variables
  • Computational Fluid Dynamics
  • Computational Science
  • Computer Simulations
  • Computers
  • Differential Equations
  • Equations Of Motion
  • Mathematical Analysis
  • Polyethylene Glycols
  • Steady State
  • Test And Evaluation
  • Test Methods
  • Three Dimensional
  • Wind Tunnel Tests
  • Wind Tunnels

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Aerospace Engineering
  • Computational Modeling and Simulation
  • Control Systems Engineering.