Preliminary Design

The J2 Universal Tool-Kit can be used from the very beginning of a new project.

In the early stages of preliminary design the aircraft configuration is in a state of flux. The J2 Universal Tool-Kit enables aircraft models to be created simply and quickly with a minimal amount of information. This differs from traditional methods for modelling and simulation where the overheads associated with building aircraft models and performing stability analysis are too high. What this means is that more analysis can be performed earlier in the design process and problems identified. This enables engineers to modify and update the changes where the cost of correcting errors is significantly lower.

J2 BUILDER can consider any sort of aircraft, and convert whatever information is available into a structured hierarchical model. Once the structure has been created, aerodynamic, mass and inertia information and user defined variables can be added at any level. This creates a logical easy to understand aircraft model.

Aircraft models can start using simple linear derivatives and updated at any time to include additional non-linear information. Thus once a model has been set up, the time to make amendments is significantly reduced.

Example

In the example shown here, a simple linear model was constructed. At the very beginning of the project, the basic layout of the aircraft was known, and the model was made up of a clean aircraft and standard control surfaces.

Aerodynamic data, calculated from basic empirical methods, was then added to the model for 3 flight conditions. The complete model construction took less than 30 minutes.

With this model, it was then possible to “fly” the aircraft to investigate the standard modes of motion using J2 FREEDOM. Further “flights” were performed to investigate the control authority at the key flight conditions.

The results could be easily viewed in graphical form using J2 VISUALIZE, or viewed in a 3-D simulation environment with J2 VIRTUAL.

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