Hot-air airship

The airship produced by Cameron Balloon, Int. The design of this airship is very complex problem, since it is necessary to ensure simultaneously large volume to provide sufficient lifting force, minimal mass of construction and propulsion system, streamlined shape of envelope for maximum flight velocity, stability in flow, etc.

Streamlined body shape chosen after aerodynamic analysis and water-tunnel test.

The best shape can be chosen as a result of aerodynamic analysis and testing in wind- and water-tunnel. But the envelope made of sealed textile is very flexible and the problem is: how to maintain this good shape under the action of aerostatic and aerodynamic load?

For this purpose the structure can be reinforced with ribbon carcass. The program MONSTR-2.2 enables to add ribbons to structure and predict the shape of envelope under aerostatic and aerodynamic load. This procedure is very fast. In example presented above (dirigible volume ~3000m3 , hot air temperature 100C, small excessive pressure 10N/m2) the proper carcass for the dirigible body was selected after third iteration. It took only 3 hours including preprocessing, computing and analysis of results. The final shape after aerostatic loading is close to desirable one.

Finite-element system and ribbon carcass

Predicted resulting shape under aerostatic load

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