Four-degree-of-freedom course stability of an air cushion vehicle (Q615313)

The authors present a mathematical model of the motion of an air cushion vehicle. The corresponding maneuvering is governed by an ODE system of fourth order with forward, transverse, yaw, and roll velocity components as variables. The hydrodynamic, aerodynamic, propeller and rudder forces are taken into account. The hydrodynamic force is determined numerically from experiments with horizontal-planar-motion mechanisms including the oblique towing, pure sway and pure yaw. The data for the other three forces are taken from wind tunnel experiments. A linearized system of perturbed motion equations is obtained to study the stability problem using the Hurwitz criterion. The results of the simulations are compared with a simplified second-order model with transverse and roll velocity components. The authors demonstrate that the course stability for the complete system is better than for the reduced one.