An overview on dynamics and controls modelling of hypersonic vehicles

In order to appropriately design control laws for hypersonic vehicles, it is paramount to understand how the flight dynamics are impacted by the interactions between the aerothermodynamics, propulsion system, structural dynamics, and control system. To this end, there has been a significant investment into the modelling of these sub-systems and their integration into a comprehensive model that can be used to the characterize the flight dynamics of scramjet-powered hypersonic aircraft and still remain amenable to control law design and analysis. In this paper, the development of a comprehensive model of the longitudinal dynamics of generic hypersonic vehicle with an outward-turning, two-dimensional inlet is described. The sub-system models, for the most part, are simple models derived from first-principles and are intended to capture the interactions between the different sub-systems to provide a representative vehicle model. We also will discuss the areas that are important to realizing a hypersonic modelling approach that can take any given vehicle geometry and permit a thorough analysis of its stability and control characteristics and any practical constraints on its operability, the design of a control law, an assessment of it closed-loop performance.