RU196628U1 - Airship Ballast System - Google Patents

Abstract

The air-ballast system of the airship is designed to change the aerostatic lift of a semi-rigid airship and maintain it in flight, regardless of changes in atmospheric conditions, flight altitude and fuel consumption. Flexible ballast tanks (air balloons) are made in the form of pipes attached inside the shell of the airship in its lower part. The overall dimensions of each pipe are selected based on the estimated total volume of air mass equal to the mass of the payload. Compressed air is supplied to the ballonet from the corresponding compressor stage of the turboshaft aircraft engine. The technical result is that the carrier gas mass remains constant, regardless of flight conditions, and condensate removal from the balloon’s inner surface is more efficient. The inertial forces from the air masses during acceleration and braking of the airship are “muffled” (reduced) by the presence of high air pressure in the balloons.

Description

The air-ballast system is designed to change the aerostatic lift of a semi-rigid airship and maintain it in flight, regardless of heating or cooling of carrier gas (hydrogen, helium) in the shell, fuel consumption by onboard engines, and changes in flight altitude.

For this, flexible containers and air balloons are filled inside the shell, filled with atmospheric air, taken in a satellite stream behind propellers (impellers), rotated by outboard engines or fans specially installed for this purpose. Each balloon includes valves for filling and releasing compressed atmospheric air, valves for filling and discharging air, including air ducts and devices for monitoring temperature, pressure and air volume.

The analogue is known - a semi-rigid electric airship with balloons placed inside its shell filled with atmospheric air {1}. The disadvantage of this technical solution is the need to perform balloons with large volumes of air, reaching up to 50% of the volume of the airship, depending on the planned flight altitude. And this leads to a corresponding decrease in the useful load of the airship. Their filling lasts a long time, which negatively affects the maneuverability of the airship in the vertical plane.

Another drawback is the inability to quickly purge such balloons to remove condensate arising on their internal surfaces due to changes in humidity and ambient air temperature, which shortens the life of such systems. In addition, significant air masses in large ballonettes contribute to the appearance of inertial forces in the horizontal plane during acceleration or deceleration of the airship at high flight speeds (up to 150 km / h), which negatively affects the operation of airborne avionics.

Known analogue is the prototype of the airship, inside of which are placed tubular flexible balloons filled with air from the compressor {2, p. 425} around the entire perimeter of the cross-section of the airship body. The disadvantages of this technical solution are:

a decrease in the stability of the airship, that is, an increase in airborne buildup in windy weather during the flight, since the center of gravity of the airship is shifted high enough upward);

the presence of a large number of tubular ballonettes filled with air leads to an increase in their own mass and a low rate of filling and release from air;

the system of valves for filling and discharging air, including air ducts and instruments that control temperature, pressure and air volumes, is difficult to manufacture and operate.

The purpose of this technical solution is to quickly fill and empty ballast balloons filled with air to a pressure at which the mass of this compressed air will be equal to the mass of the payload lifted by the airship.

In addition, the mass of the carrier gas inside the airship shell remains constant, regardless of flight conditions, and the removal of condensate from the inner surface of the balloon is more efficient.

This goal is achieved in that the air balloons are made in the form of pipes attached inside the shell of the airship in its lower part. The overall dimensions of each pipe are selected based on the estimated total volume of air mass equal to the payload mass with a six-fold safety factor of the balloon material. Compressed air is supplied to the balloons from the corresponding stage of the compressor of the VK-2500PS turboshaft aircraft engine, which has a reduced noise pressure and a higher efficiency than a gas turbine aircraft engine.

In FIG. 1 shows the air-ballast system (a side view of one balloon is conventionally shown) of the airship, where it is indicated: 1 - the shell of the airship; 2 - air balloon; 3 - pressure sensor; 4 - controlled valve; 5 - power tape; 6 - air pipe from the VK-2500PS engine; 7 - check valve; 8 - fan; 9 - air pipe from the fan; 10 - turboshaft engine VK-2500PS; 11 - check valve; 12 - temperature sensor; 13 - valve for automatic and manual control.

The device operates as follows. In the parking lot, the airship is located with fully made air balloons, the internal overpressure of which is 0.6 atm. If there is also fuel on board, the aerostatic free lift of the airship does not exceed the mass of air placed in the balloons. In this case, the airship can be considered an apparatus heavier than air, which favors its parking on the ground, unloading and loading of paid cargo.

At the beginning of the vertical start after loading, when both turboshaft engines are turned on, the pilot opens the valve 13 and the air under pressure begins to flow into the atmosphere. The pressure of the carrier gas also contributes to this process, squeezing the remaining air from the ballonet. At the same time, the free aerostatic one increases, and during the operation of propulsors (impellers) with a vertical thrust vector, the airship begins to take off. At the operating altitude, there is no air in the balloons. Before landing, the airship begins filling balloons with air at a pressure of 0.6 atm from the corresponding compressor stage of the VK-2500PS turboshaft compressor. Although about 7% of the power of each engine is lost during this process, this does not affect the conditions of piloting the airship, since the degree of reduction in the landing speed of the airship is balanced with the degree of reduction in engine power. Filling of any of the ballonets with air is carried out from the compressor stage of any of the turboshaft engines made on board the airship.

When landing a loaded airship, the vertical thrust vector of the impellers impedes a rough landing. Thus, with the coordinated operation of the air-ballast system and outboard engines, the airship is reduced and landed. When taking air from one of the engines in a volume of 20 cubic meters per second, the set time is 8800 cubic meters. will be 7.3 minutes, if both engines are working, then the filling time for both balloons is 3.7 minutes.

Thus, the air-ballast system of the airship, including several air balloons, has increased reliability during operation even if one of the turboshaft engines made on board the airship is operational.

Balloons 2 are attached to the lower part of the shell 1 by power tapes 5, which prevent their movement, and in the presence of longitudinal power tapes, the strength reliability of the balloon increases. The pressure sensor 3 detects the pressure of the compressed air and, if it unexpectedly exceeds the calculated value, gives a command to open the valve 13 and release some of the air. The nozzles 6 and 9 direct the air entering the balloon from the fan 8 and from the compressor of the VK-2500PS 10 engine. They are equipped with check valves 11 and 7, respectively. The sensor 12 detects the temperature of the air coming from the compressor of the engine 10, which is about 200 degrees Celsius. With adiabatic expansion in the balloon, the temperature of this air drops sharply, which contributes to the appearance of condensate on the inner surface of the balloon. As a result, after emptying the balloon, it is purged with warm air supplied from another stage of the turboshaft compressor.

If both engines 10 fail, fans 8, powered by on-board batteries, are turned on. Of course, the filling of the ballonet will be longer, since the pressure from the fan does not exceed 0.15 atm and the air mass will be less. The unobtainable mass of air is compensated by the vertical negative (down) thrust of the impellers, whose electric motors are also powered by batteries. The controlled valve 4 is intended for use in an emergency, for example, when a strong carrier gas leak from a shell rupture or as a result of shelling is detected. In this case, by releasing air from the balloons, it is possible to briefly raise the pressure of the carrier gas, which maintains the aerodynamic contours of the shell, while the crew lands on the landing site selected from the air.

As a material for air balloons, a hybrid multilayer fabric based on carbon and Kevlar is used, which perceives high temperatures and acting tensile stresses.

The technical result of the Utility model is that:

balloon volumes are reduced with a mass of air enclosed in them equal to the mass of the airship payload;

the mass of the carrier gas in the airship shell remains constant, regardless of the state of the surrounding atmosphere;

condensate removal from the inner surface of the ballonet is more efficient;

inertial forces arising in balloons during acceleration and braking of the airship are reduced by the presence of high air pressure in them;

The use of carbon and Kevlar hybrid multilayer fabric as an air balloon material ensures a six-fold safety margin for balloons and the high temperature operation of the hot air coming from the engine compressor.

Known analogues:

1. Application for utility model No. 2011112349 04/23/2019

2. Yu.S. Boyko. Aeronautical vehicles and flights on them, Simferopol, "Antikva", 2015

Claims (6)

1. The air-ballast system of the airship containing flexible air balloons, each of which includes valves for the inlet and outlet of compressed atmospheric air, valves for filling and discharging air, including air ducts and devices for monitoring temperature, pressure and volume of air, and is configured to be filled with air, both from a compressor and from a fan powered by electricity from an onboard battery, characterized in that said compressor is a turboshaft aircraft engine compressor and carries out ie filling mentioned ballonets. 2. The air-ballast system of the airship according to claim 1, characterized in that the purge of the empty balloon and its drainage from condensate is carried out by compressed air from the compressor of the turboshaft aircraft engine. 3. The air-ballast system of the airship according to claim 1, characterized in that the mass of compressed air filling the balloons is equal to the mass of the payload lifted by the airship to flight altitude. 4. The air-ballast system of the airship according to claim 1, characterized in that in case of leakage of the carrier gas, in case of damage to the shell of the airship, the overpressure of the carrier gas is maintained by releasing air from the balloon into the volume of the carrier gas until the flight is completed safely. 5. The air-ballast system of the airship according to claim 1, characterized in that the inertial forces from the air masses arising in the balloons during acceleration and braking of the airship are reduced by the presence of high air pressure. 6. The air-ballast system of the airship according to claim 2, characterized in that the mass of the carrier gas filling the envelope of the airship remains constant at all flight modes of the airship, regardless of the state of the atmosphere and the pressure of the carrier gas.

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