Dynamic Analysis and Simulation of Airborne Flexible Net Deployment and Collision Processes

The safety of aviation platforms has always been a major concern in the design of aviation vehicles. Airborne high-speed maneuvering targets are currently the most significant threat to all types of aviation platforms due to their high flexibility and anti-jamming capability. This paper presents a new technology of airborne flexible net for high-speed maneuvering target capture. The analysis of flexible net dynamics in this paper includes two aspects: net-expansion dynamics and capture collision dynamics. To solve the technical difficulties of the airborne unfolding of the flexible net, two symmetric design schemes, namely, the traction method and the rotation method, are developed. The mechanical analyses of the two net-expansion methods are carried out. Meanwhile, this paper establishes a collision dynamics model based on the continuous contact force method, and carries out several collision capture tests using two flexible nets. The results show that a transient acceleration is applied in all directions of the target during the collision, capable of reaching the magnitude of 104. The maximum stress inside the target aerodynamic surface reaches the magnitude of GPa, and the strong impact produced in the capture process will cause damage to the aerodynamic parts. Finally, the flight experiments of damaged targets are carried out based on six-degree-of-freedom-model, and the effect of damaged targets on the safety of aircraft platforms after contact collisions is further analyzed. The results of this paper can provide a theoretical reference for the research and development of airborne flexible nets.