Controlling hypersonic vehicles is challenging due to dynamic interactions between subsystems and large variations in aerodynamic forces over the flight envelope. Full-scale flight testing is ultimately required to validate control system performance but can only be conducted late in the test and evaluation process due to cost. This paper describes closed-loop control tests of a canonical wing-flap geometry in a short-duration hypersonic wind tunnel. It advances a generalized method of ground-test validation for scaled-vehicle aerodynamics, control systems, and stability characteristics. Experiments are conducted in the University of Southern Queensland’s hypersonic wind tunnel (TUSQ), which can generate Mach 7 flows with durations of approximately 0.5 s. This work makes two primary contributions to advancing hypersonic ground-testing capabilities. The first is an apparatus capable of performing dynamically actuated open- and closed-loop tests in a short-duration hypersonic flow. The second is the demonstration of model-fitting techniques using a series of dynamic ground-test data. To validate the approach, we fit a model using the results of tunnel tests and then evaluate the model against experimental trajectories. Closed-loop control tests show good dynamic performance, with the controller damping wing oscillations by 90% in under 280 ms.
Hoffen et al. (Sun,) studied this question.