Traveling sine waves can occur in an aerial refueling hose that result in excessive forces transferred to the receiving aircrafts refueling probe. These waves can arise from failures in the hose reeling mechanism, high aircraft approach speeds, or other inputs that create excessive hose slack. New concepts will be analyzed that significantly reduce or eliminate these waves, leading to a new innovative hose design that meets current standards, absorbs excess energy, but will not interfere with refueling or hose reeling operations. The new hose design will utilize embedded viscoelastic materials that increase damping. Varying the damping and stiffness along the hose length will also be considered, in addition to an axial damper installed near the drogue that will absorb the hose slack and will reduce the energy transferred into the hose. Phase I will utilize Stirlings existing hose dynamics software that will be modified to conduct parametric studies of these options. The software will be combined with a new reeling mechanism model to provide an integrated simulation. The proposed concepts will be examined under typical operational scenarios to demonstrate feasibility. One or two concepts will be down-selected for further investigation in Phase II.
Benefit: Several anticipated benefits will result from a new innovative hose design that can significantly reduce or eliminate traveling waves. Greater refueling effectiveness, improved safety, reduced probe breakage, reduced risk to the receiving aircraft, and greater hose and drogue operational capability will be gained. Enhanced reliability will be achieved for military aerial refueling operations where probe failures have occurred that can have a large cost in terms of mission success, battle effectiveness and military hardware. The technology developed will attract wide application in other military refueling operations including the US Navy, Air Force, DARPA and NASA. The commercial tanking industry that uses contractor owned aircraft to refuel military and support aircraft would also benefit.
Keywords: Refueling modeling, Refueling modeling, Aerial refueling simulation, refueling hose dynamics, hose damping, reeling mechanism, hose whip modeling, Energy absorption, Viscoelastic Materials
