Abstract
In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in the research and development of high-altitude airships. These systems provide a suspended platform using buoyancy at 17–25 km altitude. They have an enormous yet untapped potential for telecommunication, broadcasting relays, regional navigation, scientific exploration, and many other potential applications in an affordable fashion. Consequently, a large volume of literature has emerged covering the various aspects of design and development. This paper presents a state-of-the-art review of research and development in high-altitude airships. It covers the critical area, e.g., worldwide involvement, shape optimization, thermal analysis, design studies, etc. Realistic prediction of thermal behavior is essential to determine its effect on energy generation and altitude control. The paper discusses the various thermal investigations and numerical modeling approaches to study thermal performance. The envelope is the largest entity and directly contributes to the drag, hence energy demand. The energy generated also depends on the layout of the solar array. Therefore, aerodynamic shape optimization and solar array layout optimization are also studied. The efficiency of the solar array degrades as the temperature rises. The thermal model must be coupled to the design technique to compensate for the power loss. Therefore, various design optimization methods are critically analyzed with and without thermal consideration. Thermal behavior has been captured well in the existing literature through analytic, numerical, and machine-learning techniques. However, more experimental investigations are needed to validate these studies under generic conditions. The developed design techniques can design and optimize the airships conceptually only. Therefore, a comprehensive method must be developed based on a robust MDO framework. The paper highlights the challenges in designing and developing these systems and research gaps for future investigations.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 2289-2339 |
| Number of pages | 51 |
| Journal | Archives of Computational Methods in Engineering |
| Volume | 30 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Apr 2023 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:NAL (Japan) conducted a feasibility study on a design concept for an unmanned stratospheric platform (SPF) airship in 1999 [, ]. In the same year, the Advanced Technologies Group Limited (ATG) in the United Kingdom proposed StratSat, a solar-powered airship with a rotating hull structure to ensure high solar energy availability. Lockheed Martin Naval Electronics & Surveillance Systems (LM-NE &SS) in the United States showcased a 47-m-long high-altitude airship (HAA) concept. Shanghai Jiao Tong University has been conducting a feasibility study of geostationary telecommunication using a solar airship since 2000 and is currently developing a strategic plan for hardware development. In addition to these agencies, other countries such as China, Canada, Israel, Russia, and Switzerland have attempted or been active in developing HAA or components thereof. The range of activities includes technology training to creating scaled prototype platforms. Several of these programs have also been put on hold due to a lack of funding and underdeveloped technologies. Some companies, such as ATG of the United Kingdom, have closed due to budget issues. The only active development was reported to be taking place in the United States (DARPA) and a few lesser-known DOD-sponsored and privately funded projects. The Integrated Sensors Is Structure (ISIS) project was funded by DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), with Lockheed Martin, Akron, and Raytheon taking responsibility for Platform and Payloads, respectively [, ].
Funding Information:
This research was supported by Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education (No. 2020R1A6A1A03046811).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s) under exclusive licence to International Center for Numerical Methods in Engineering (CIMNE).
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Computer Science Applications
- Applied Mathematics