Simulation Of Aam Aircraft Operations In Urban Turbulent Airwake Environments

Abstract

While designs of Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) and Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles (UAV) have made significant progress, simulation and analysis of the concepts of operation are necessary before these vehicles are deployed for general use. A major area of concern is the safety of flight at comparably low altitudes within urban and suburban areas, where the aircraft operate near the urban infrastructure and in an ambient environment that is significantly different than higher altitudes. A new approach to incorporate these highly unsteady flight conditions into an industry-standard, comprehensive modeling and simulation code, FLIGHTLAB, is proposed and evaluated. The comprehensive model captures the pertinent operational and flight characteristics of an AAM configuration including details addressing the tightly coupled flight and propulsion systems as well as elastic aircraft structures. The methodology has a myriad applications in this study the impact of turbulence on passenger ride quality is examined and these initial studies indicate that inclusion of the turbulent wake in the urban environment simulations is necessary.