Research on Drag Reduction of Stratospheric Airship Based on Height Control

Aiming at the headwind energy consumption problem of stratospheric airship during fixed-point working hours, a drag reduction method is studied by control airship to keep it at the lowest wind speed height. Firstly, the wind profile is divided into mean wind and random wind, then analyses the change of mean wind profile with day and night, season and height, and the effect of height control on headwind energy saving. Secondly, the Dryden model is adopted to describe the random wind profile, and the relevant parameters of the model are identified basing on the actual measured data. Then, basing on the high-altitude random wind profile profile, the Monte Carlo method is used to analyze the energy consumption of the wind at different altitudes. The results show that the small-scale lifting airship can significantly reduce the energy consumption of headwind, but this effect does not increase linearly with the increasing of the lifting range. Finally, the application of this new drag reduction method in airships is studied.