Lecture 6 : Aircraft orientation in 3 dimensions

Or describing simultaneous roll, pitch and yaw

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1.0 Flight Dynamics Model For flight dynamics & control, the reference frame is aligned with the aircraft and moves with it. (Why?) Xb

Yb Zb Question: Wheres the origin located for this body axes ?

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 The aircraft is modelled as a rigid body with __ degrees of freedom The ___ DOFs correspond to Denote the translational velocity of the aircraft by V = {u,v,w} Denote the angular velocity of the aircraft by = {p,q,r}

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Figure 1.1 : Six Degrees of Freedom u p - roll rate Xb q - pitch rate Yb v

r - yaw rate Note the right hand rule for rotation rates Zb w

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1.1 Defining the aircraft orientation - Euler angles The local horizon axes is aligned with the Earth fixed axes but translated to the aircrafts cg. i body axes I j I k K J Earth fixed axes K
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local horizon axes J

Question : How do we express the basis vectors IJK of the local horizon system in terms of the basis vectors ijk of the body axes system or vice versa ? i I j

k K

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The local horizon axes system IJK can be rotated to coincide with the body axes i j k by using three rotation angles or Euler angles

Yaw Euler angle Pitch Euler angle Roll Euler angle

(Greek : psi) (theta) (phi)

NB : The order of the rotations is important !

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Step 1) Rotate IJK by an angle about the K axis (yaw) This yields the intermediate axes i1 j1 k1

J I

i1 j1

K = k1

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Step 1) Yaw about the K axis

i1

i1 j1 k1

[ R ]

I J K j1

cos sin 0 -sin cos 0 0 0 1

I J K

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Step 2) Rotate i1 j1 k1 by an angle about the j1 axis (pitch) This yields the intermediate axes i2 j2 k2 i2 i1 j1 i1 k2 k1 k1 j1 = j2

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Step 2) Pitch about the j1 axis i2 j2 k2 = [ R ] i1 j1 k1

i2

i1

k2 = cos 0 -sin 0 1 0 sin 0 cos i1 j1 k1 k1

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Step 3) Rotate i2 j2 k2 by an angle about the new i2 axis (roll) This yields the body axes i j k i2 j2 j k2 k k2 i2 = i j2

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Step 3) Roll about the i2 axis i j k = [ R ] i2 j2 k2 k k2 = 1 0 0 0 cos sin 0 -sin cos i2 j2 k2 j j2

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So finally, the basis vectors of the local horizon IJK and the body axes ijk are related as follows :

i j k

[ R ] [ R ] [ R ]

I J K

Question : What happens if we want IJK in terms of ijk ? Hint : The rotation matrices have a special property [ R ]-1 = [ R ]T

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Inverting the matrix product to get IJK in terms of ijk :

-1

I J K

[ R ] [ R ] [ R ]

i j k

[R

]T

[ R

]T

[ R

]T

i j k

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Exercise : Express the weight force component in terms of the body axes basis vectors i j k

Hint : The weight component points downwards ie W K hence we need only express K in terms of i j k

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Using the relationship derived : I J K cos -sin 0 sin cos 0 0 0 1 cos 0 sin 0 1 0 -sin 0 cos 1 0 0 0 cos -sin 0 sin cos i j k

Premultiply both sides by {0 0 1} K = {-sin 0 cos } 1 0 0 0 cos -sin 0 sin cos {-sin cos sin i j k
What happens if the Euler angles are small ?

cos cos } i j k

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2.0 Rotation rates and change in aircraft orientation How are the body rotational rates p,q,r related to the rate of change of the Euler angles ? How about p q r = = = d / dt d / dt d / dt

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The angular velocity vector is = p i + q j + r k written using the body axes basis vectors describes the rate of change in orientation which can also be written as : Noting that K j1 i2 = = = -sin i + cos sin j + j2 i
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j1

i2

cos cos k

cos j - sin k

p q r

-sin = cos sin

0 cos

1 0 0

cos cos -sin Inverting yields : ' ' '

= = =

p + (q sin + r cos ) tan q cos - r sin (q sin + r cos ) sec

What happens if is 90 o ?

NB : These are the EOMs relating the rate of change of aircraft orientation to body rotational rates
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3.0 Aerodynamic forces in the body axes For a general aircraft orientation, the angle of attack and sideslip are defined as follows:

Yb Zb

Xb

V direction of flight
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3.1 : Writing body velocity components with aerodynamic angles

Yb Zb

Resolving the velocity vector Xb u v w VT = = = VT cos cos VT sin VT cos sin

Question : What about the aerodynamic forces ?

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3.2 Writing aerodynamic forces in the body axes Often aerodynamic forces are specified in terms of 3 mutually perpendicular forces L D D : drag, aero force opposite to VT L : lift, aero force perpendicular to VT S : side force Y NB : L, D & S defines an axes system i.e. the flight path axes
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S Z X

VT

The transformation can be written in terms of two rotations 1) a rotation about the Y body axes by - 2) a rotation about the resulting Z axis by and then inverting the components

D S L = -

cos() sin() 0 -sin() cos() 0 0 0 1

cos(-) 0 -sin(-) 0 1 0

X Y Z

sin(-) 0 cos(-)

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Multiplying the rotation matrices yields the body axes components for the aerodynamic forces

- (X cos + Z sin) cos - Y sin

(X cos + Z sin) sin - Y cos

X sin - Z cos

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or the inverse relation

X Y Z

= = =

L sin - (S cos - L cos

+ + +

(S sin - D cos) cos D sin) (S sin - D cos) sin

Question : What do you expect if and are small ?

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