AUTOPILOT DESIGN Intensive course Lecture 5.

Air turbulence
External force components along the body fixed coordinate axes if the flying vehicle
is moving through non-steady atmosphere could be generally expressed via the following
corrections of the force equations:
1
1
1
]
1

+
+
+

1
1
1
]
1

w w w
w w w
w w w
w
w
w
wind
qu pv w
ru pw v
rv qw u
m
Z
Y
X
F

The variation of the mean value of wind magnitude along the flight path is called
wind shear. In order to make the proper parameteriation of the wind it is always
preferable to adopt some of the existing standards. I!"# standard atmosphere assumes
standard temperature lapse rate:
$
%%&' . % (

m K dH dT . )or this lapse rate a
typical idealied wind profile can be represented by the following expression:
( )
( ) m H V V
m H
H
V V
w w
w w
*%% +&'+' . ,
*%% %
*-.% . $
-%/. . %
$' . /
,'-' . %
$' . /

< <

V
w/.$'
is the wind at /.$' m altitude. The wind profiles depend on the temperature
lapse rate and are also standardied for other lapse rates and represented by the similar
expressions.
0epresentation of the wind as a stochastic process 1air turbulence2 is the most
accurate way of simulation of this effect onto the flight. "uto power density spectra form
the basic elements of the turbulence model. 3everal spectra of this type could be found in
literature. "ll of them require selection of intensity levels and some scale lengths before
they can be applied in simulation. The following six assumptions concerning stochastic
processes are usually made when they are applied to atmospheric turbulence:
$. Ergodicity which means that the time averages in the process are equal to
corresponding ensemble averages. This assumption makes it possible to
determine all required statistical properties related to a given set of atmospheric
conditions from a single time history of sufficient length.
,. !tationarity which deals with temporal properties of turbulence. If the statistical
properties of a process are not affected by a shift in the time origin4 this process
is called stationary.
*. Homogeneity which deals with spatial properties of turbulence. Turbulence can
be called homogeneous if its statistical properties are not affected by a spatial
translation of the reference frame.
+
AUTOPILOT DESIGN Intensive course Lecture 5.
-. "sotropy which means that the statistical properties are not changed by a rotation
or a deflection of the frame of reference. !omplete isotropy implies
homogeneity. 5ecause of isotropy4 the three mean-square velocity components
and their scale lengths are equal:
g w v u
w v u
# # # #

, , , ,

'. Taylor$s hypothesis o% &%ro'en atmosphere$ which implies that gust velocities are
functions of the position in the atmosphere only. 6uring the short time interval in
which the flying body is under the influence of the velocities at a certain point in
the atmosphere4 these velocities are assumed not to change with time. This
hypothesis allows spatial correlation functions and frequencies to be related to
correlation functions and frequencies in the time domain. The following relations
are used:
V (
V
( distance between two points in space7 8m9
V true airspeed of the aircraft(missile7 8ms
-$
9

time needed by the aircraft(missile to cover the distance ( 7 8s9
spatial frequency7 8rad m
-$
9

temporal frequency7 8rad s
-$
9

&. )ormality which means that the probability density function of each turbulence
velocity component is :aussian. ;ith this assumption4 the information of the
covariance matrix only is sufficient for a total statistical description of
atmospheric turbulence.
Experimental data on atmospheric turbulence at low altitudes4 i.e. in the boundary
layer of the Earth4 do not satisfy all these assumptions. "t low altitudes the assumptions
about homogeneity and isotropy are not very valid due to proximity of the ground. The
assumption of stationarity is satisfied only over the short periods of time during which the
meteorological conditions remain reasonably constant. The shape and roughness of the
ground surface below the flying vehicle also affect stationarity. Taylor<s hypothesis
seems to be valid as long as the velocity of the flying vehicle is large relative to the
encountered turbulence velocity. )inally4 measurements have provided evidence that
atmospheric turbulence is not perfectly :aussian4 but the departures from a normal
amplitude distribution are small. "ssumptions $ = & are generally valid. The aircraft
landing is one example where all previously mentioned departures from these
assumptions must be carefully analyed.
Power spectra of atmospheric turbulence
/
AUTOPILOT DESIGN Intensive course Lecture 5.
3everal analytical power spectral density functions have been obtained from
measured data. The von Karman spectral density functions seem to best fit the available
theoretical and experimental data on atmospheric turbulence4 particularly at higher spatial
frequencies. The von >arman spectra for the three components of the turbulence velocity
are:
( )
( ) ( )
( )
( )
( ) ( )
( )
( )
( ) ( )
&
$$
,
,
,
&
$$
,
,
,
&
'
,
,
**/ . $ $
**/ . $
*
+
$
**/ . $ $
**/ . $
*
+
$
**/ . $ $
$
,
+
+

+
+

+

w
w
w w w w
v
v
v v v v
u
u u u u
#
#
# !
#
#
# !
#
# !
g g
g g
g g

The cross-spectral density functions are ero in isotropic turbulence at any point in
space. "lthough this approximation is not very valid at low altitudes4 the cross
covariances 1and hence4 the cross power spectral densities2 are usually neglected. The
von >arman spectra yield an asymptotic behavior of ( )
* '
! as approaches
infinity. " mayor drawback of the von >arman spectral densities is that they are not
rational functions of . )or this reason the following power spectral density model is
often used for flight simulation purposes:
( )
( ) ( )
( )
( )
( ) ( )
( )
( )
( ) ( )
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
$
* $
$
* $
$
$
,
+
+

+
+

+

w
w
w w w w
v
v
v v v v
u
u u u u
#
#
# !
#
#
# !
#
# !
g g
g g
g g

These functions are known as the *ryden spectra. The most obvious difference is the
asymptotic behavior at large values of spatial frequency. In the case of former one4 the
slope is -'(*4 while for the later it is -,.
$%
AUTOPILOT DESIGN Intensive course Lecture 5.
Filter design for modeling of atmospheric turbulence
)or simulation purposes it is practical to model atmospheric turbulence as white
noise passing through a linear4 rational ?forming filter< 1)igure '..2.
Linear filter
(Dryden)
White noise
Turbulent velocity
('colored noise')
Figure 5.7 Modeling atmos!eri" tur#ulen"e as $iltered %!ite noise
The relationship between the auto spectral density of the input signal u of a linear
filter can be written as:
( ) ( ) ( )
uu yy yy
! H !
,

where
( )
yy
H
denotes the amplitude response of the filter. If the input signal is white
noise4 its spectral density satisfies:
( ) $
uu
!
4 so for white noise4 the previous equation
simplifies to:
( ) ( )
,

yy yy
H !
To apply these relations4 the spatial spectral density functions of the turbulence
velocities must be transformed to functions of temporal frequency4 , which s possible
because we assume Taylor<s hypothesis to be valid. This transformation is given by:
( )
,
_

V
!
V
!

$
The 6ryden spectra were developed to approximate the von >arman turbulence
spectra by means of rational functions. )rom the given definitions of the 6ryden spectra
it follows:
$$
AUTOPILOT DESIGN Intensive course Lecture 5.
( )
( )
( )
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
$
* $
$
* $
$
$
,
*
,
$

,
_

,
_

,
_

,
_

,
_

,
_

,
_

,
_

V
#
V
#
V
#
H
V
#
V
#
V
#
H
V
#
V
#
H
w
w
w
w w w
v
v
v
v w v
u
u
u w u
g
g
g

3olving these equations yields the following candidate functions for the frequency
responses of the forming filters:
( )
( )
( )

+
V
#
+
V
#
V
#
H
+
V
#
+
V
#
V
#
H
+
V
#
V
#
H
w
w
w
w w w
v
v
v
v w v
u
u
u w u
g
g
g
t
t

t
t

$
* $
,
$
* $
,
$
$ ,
*
,
$
In these equations * , $
4 4
are independent white noise signals. !hoosing the
minus sign in the denominators would lead to unstable filters and hence should be
re@ected for physical reasons. !hoosing the minus sign in numerators leads to non-
minimum phase systems. Therefore it is preferable to use positive signs in both the
numerator and denominator.
It is easy to implement these filters in a simulation package like 3imulink. If white
noise is approximated by a sequence of :aussian distributed random numbers7 it is then
very easy to obtain the required time tra@ectories of the turbulence velocity components.
These random sequences should be completely independent4 which may not be obvious if
the simulation software uses some initial starting value or ?seed< for its random generator.
"s in the case of constant wind4 these disturbances can be analyed using &-6#)-
flight model as well as the linearied dynamic representation in the form of transfer
functions. 5ecause the fact that the air turbulence is of stochastic nature4 the output of a
$,
AUTOPILOT DESIGN Intensive course Lecture 5.
system should be analyed in the same way. #ne is interested to minimie obtained
standard deviation of a controlled variable:

%
,
,
2 1 2 1
$

d + , !
where4 ,1+2 in particular example could be:
, + s
'
'
s +
1 2 1 2

and the controlled variable is the angular deviation from the line of sight.
The following are the simulation examples showing the same variables as in the case
of constant wind4 but now in the case where the wind strikes are represented using
6ryden<s model of the air turbulence. )igure '.+ illustrates results obtained without :A!
system while in the case of )igure './4 :A! system is used.
Figure 5.& Simulation results '%it!out G() s*stem+
$*
0 5 10
-4
-2
0
2
4
x 10
-3
pitch [rad]
0 5 10
-2
-1
0
1
2
3
x 10
-3
elevation [rad]
0 5 10
-2
0
2
4
6
8
linear distance [m]
0 5 10
-5
0
5
10
15
x 10
-4
angular error [rad]
0 5 10
-0.01
-0.005
0
0.005
0.01
pitch [rad]
0 5 10
-6
-4
-2
0
2
4
x 10
-3
elevation [rad]
0 5 10
-2
-1
0
1
2
linear distance [m]
0 5 10
-4
-2
0
2
4
x 10
-4
angular error [rad]
AUTOPILOT DESIGN Intensive course Lecture 5.
Figure 5.& Simulation results 'o,erall G() s*stem in"luded+
$-