Preliminary research on optimal design based on control demands for hypersonic morphing vehicle

This study investigates the optimal design problems for the hypersonic morphing vehicle. The correlations among the shock wave variation, propulsive performance, and control effect are discussed. The inversion design methods are applied to calculate the aerodynamic forces and moments of the hypersonic morphing vehicle based on the theories of the hypersonic computational mechanics. Then, the hypersonic morphing vehicle model is built, and the optimal performance indexes reflecting the waverider flight characteristics considering the appropriate flight conditions and the initial model parameters are presented. Furthermore, the variable metric algorithm is used to iteratively optimize the performance function. The optimum model parameters for the hypersonic morphing vehicle are then obtained with the control requirements. Finally, the effectiveness of the optimal design methods is verified by simulation. In general, the designs are preliminarily completed, along with the synthesis of the shape, aerodynamic force, propulsion, and the control action. We believe that this study provides helpful information on hypersonic morphing vehicles to guide future research.