Experimental testing of a rocket motor thrust vector control actuation system demonstrator

Abstract

This paper presents the results of simulation and experimental studies concerning the control of a rocket motor thrust vector direction. The change in direction was achieved using a developed and constructed control actuation system demonstrator. The first part of the article focuses on presenting the demonstrator for a hypothetical rocket missile equipped with this system and simulations of the missile flight control. Simulation results determined the required thrust vector deflection angles. Subsequently, this data was used to program the control actuation system (CAS) and conduct experiments on the physical demonstrator. By commanding specific deflections of the actuator system over time, the resulting forces and moments were measured during thrust generation, simulating flight scenarios for approximately 8 seconds. The results indicate that the proposed actuator system performs its function effectively, deflecting the thrust vector largely in line with simulation predictions, after adopting system efficiency coefficients. The novelty of this work lies in comparing real-time actuator testing with a simulation control for subsonic ATGMs and finding deflection efficiency coefficients to improve the simulation model.