1. Introduction

Aerospace vehicle is the inevitable development trend in the field of aerospace in the future, which provides unprecedented opportunities for the development and transformation of the aerospace industry, but also faces severe challenges. The research of aircraft design technology is an important guarantee for the development of aerospace aircraft. Centering on the needs of the research and development of space flight technology, and around the key issues of national major scientific and technological projects and the development of next-generation aerospace major equipment, the Institute of Spaceplanes and Hypersonic Technologies carries out research on the cutting edge and basic theory of aerospace aircraft design, supports the research and development of national major equipment, and promotes the development of aerospace science and technology.

The discipline of Aeronautical and Astronautical Science and Technology where the Institute of Spaceplanes and Hypersonic Technologies is located is the first batch of doctoral programs and national first-level key disciplines in the country. The discipline of aircraft design is the first batch of master's and doctoral degree awarding points in China. A postdoctoral mobile station was established in 1985 and the special professor post of "Yangtze River Scholars" was approved in 1999. It was approved as the first batch of national key disciplines in 2002 and ranked second in the national key disciplines evaluation in 2007 and 2012.

Institute of Spaceplanes and Hypersonic Technologies is an important research force in domestic aircraft design technology, and has carried out long-term and in-depth cooperation with CASC, CASIC, AVIC, NORINCO GROUP and so on. It participated in the research and development of more than 20 flight vehicles, including carrier rockets, missiles, and satellites, served as the deputy chief division unit of a certain type of air-to-surface missile, conquered and broke through a number of key technologies, and made important contributions to national defense construction.

2. Research

2.1 Theory and Method of Aerospace Vehicle Design

(1) Research on new concept Aerospace vehicle. For space missions such as air-to-space shuttling and hypersonic cruising, several general concepts of space vehicles are put forward to lead the development of technology in this field.

(2) Theory and method of wide envelope aerodynamic design. The flow field characteristics of aerospace vehicle in full-speed domain and cross-medium flight environment are revealed, the concept of variable configuration aerodynamic shape suitable for full-speed domain flight is put forward, and the aerodynamic multi-objective optimization method with high-dimensional variables and complex constraints is established.

(3) Lightweight structure/Theory and method of heat protection design. The mechanism of force-heat action of aerospace vehicle body in extreme flight environment is revealed, the concept of load-bearing / heat-proof integrated structure is put forward, and the prediction method of force-heat coupling performance and the fine optimization method of integrated structure / heat protection are established.

(4) Theory and method of multidisciplinary integrated optimization. The multidisciplinary coupling mechanism of aerospace vehicle under complex mission is studied, the uncertainty model of design process and design elements is constructed, the multidisciplinary integrated optimization and simulation algorithm under uncertainty is developed, and the collaborative design and simulation environment is established.

2.2 Aircraft / Power Integrated Design Technology

(1) Theory and method of integration of aerodynamics / propulsion. The law of coupling and interaction of internal and external flow field of aspirated aerospace vehicle is revealed, the geometric matching mechanism of intake / exhaust under the condition of wide envelope is put forward, and the integrated optimization method of internal and external profile is established.

(2) Integrated thermal structure design method of engine block / engine. The mechanism of mechanical-thermal coupling of internal and external flow field is revealed, the dynamic and thermodynamic characteristics of engine block / engine structure are obtained, a new concept of integrated thermal structure is put forward, and a thermal structure design method based on multi-field coupling simulation technology is developed.

(3) Aircraft / engine integrated control method. The dynamic mechanism of highly integrated flight / launch integrated configuration is studied, the flight / launch mechanics coupling modeling method is constructed, and the flight / launch coordinated control method is developed.

2.3 Design Technology of Aerospace Flight Guidance and Control

(1) Dynamic modeling of aerospace vehicle. From the point of view of control, the coupling mechanism of aircraft dynamics is revealed, the flight dynamics characteristics of complex configurations are studied, and a fine flight dynamics model including engine, structure and aerodynamics is established.

(2) Control theory and method of aerospace vehicle. Aiming at the high dynamic and strong coupling flight environment of space flight, a fine control theory suitable for strong nonlinear and highly uncertain flight environment is proposed, and the variable configuration control method and active flow control method are developed.

(3) Theories and methods of space flight guidance. The technology of accurate information perception and information fusion in space flight environment is developed, the integrated guidance / control model of space flight is established, and autonomous flight and intelligent decision-making algorithms are developed.

(4) Ground simulation verification technology of aerospace flight guidance and control. The hardware-in-the-loop simulation verification system covering the navigation, guidance and control of space vehicle is established, and the verification of new theories and methods of space flight guidance and control is carried out.

2.4 Space force / thermal environment simulation and test technology

(1) Theories, methods and tools of space computational fluid dynamics. Improve the theory of hypersonic aerodynamics and aerothermal calculation, put forward the solution method of rarefied gas dynamics, high-precision aerodynamic prediction method in wide velocity domain, non-equilibrium flow numerical simulation method considering chemical reaction, high-precision numerical calculation method of integration of internal and external flow, and develop efficient aerodynamic and thermal calculation tools.

(2) Coupling simulation methods and tools of multi-field mechanics. The coupling principle of multi-physical field mechanical model of space flight is analyzed, and the mechanism of multi-physical field spatial discrete matching and multi-time-scale allocation, multi-physical field time-domain coupling strategy and integrated modeling and solving technology are developed to form a large-scale multi-field coupling simulation tool.

(3) Multi-field coupling ground test technology. A ground test scheme supporting multi-field coupling feature simulation is proposed, the high-precision space-to-earth conversion method and the simulation / physical test data fusion method are established, and the aircraft / engine / control system ground test system is developed.

(4) Flight test technology in space environment. Develop a low-cost space flight test platform, carry out hypersonic aerodynamics verification and basic database construction, internal and external flow coupling mechanism verification and new phenomenon discovery, internal and external flow and thermal structure coupling mechanism verification and new phenomenon discovery and so on.

3. Major Achievements

(1) "Research on Hypersonic Vehicle Technology": The concepts of hypersonic cruise vehicle and combined power aerospace vehicle are first put forward in China, and the design technology system of space vehicle is established.

(2) "Dynamic Virtual Prototyping Simulation System"：VPM has been applied in the design process of new generation aircraft such as tactical / strategic missiles, hypersonic aircrafts and reusable launch vehicles, and won the second prize for scientific and technological progress in the army.

(3) "Missile Conceptual Design Software Platform"：MCDesign has been applied in more than ten research institutes in the fields of surface-to-air missile, hypersonic cruise missile, air-to-ground missile and ballistic missile, and won one third prize of national Defense Science and Technology progress in 2015.

(4) "Aircraft Multidisciplinary Design and Optimization System": It has been applied in tactical / strategic missiles, hypersonic aircraft, reusable launch vehicles, space mobile aircraft, etc., and won the third prize of science and technology in Shaanxi Province.

(5) "High Precision Mechanical and Thermal Environment Prediction Software Platform"：It has been applied in key models and major scientific and technological projects, which provides an important support for the development of space flight technology in our country.