{"id":11801,"date":"2025-01-07T23:58:17","date_gmt":"2025-01-08T04:58:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/student-lounge\/?p=11801"},"modified":"2025-02-21T10:14:26","modified_gmt":"2025-02-21T15:14:26","slug":"simulating-water-propelled-aircraft-for-airbus-sloshing-rocket-workshop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/student-lounge\/2025\/01\/07\/simulating-water-propelled-aircraft-for-airbus-sloshing-rocket-workshop\/","title":{"rendered":"Simulating Water-Propelled Aircraft for Airbus Sloshing Rocket Workshop"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Introduction<\/h2>\n
This work was developed by Piercarlo Mirto<\/span><\/a> and Vincenzo Junior Di Rosa<\/span><\/a> master\u2019s students in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Naples Federico II. This was their contribution to the AirSloths team’s project presented to the Airbus Sloshing Rocket Workshop (<\/span>ASRW<\/span>)<\/span><\/a> 2023 competition. Team AirSloths secured first position in the 2023 final, held in Belgrade.<\/div>\n
The code aims to simulate the aircraft model’s flight and let the team optimize its geometry to maximize the flight range. Figure 1 shows the desired flight path.<\/div>\n
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Figure 1 – Desired aircraft flight<\/div>\n

<\/h3>\n
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Table of Contents<\/span><\/div>\n
Introduction
\n<\/a>Motivation
\n<\/a>Water-Propelled aircraft
\n<\/a>Aircraft mathematical modeling
\n<\/a> Architecture setup
\n<\/a> Inertial properties evaluation
\n<\/a> Aerodynamics modeling
\n<\/a> Propulsion modeling
\n<\/a>Flight simulation
\n<\/a> Aircraft dynamics modeling
\n<\/a> Initial conditions
\n<\/a> Simulation results
\n<\/a>Conclusions<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Motivation<\/h2>\n
The ASRW 2023 competition demands teams develop a low-cost reusable rocket-powered aerospace vehicle that is destabilized by the movement of water stored in an unpressurized tank located on the rear side of the vehicle. The vehicle design shall incorporate mechanisms to manage the dynamic forces introduced by the sloshing water to maximize its range, time of flight, and liquid payload capacity.<\/div>\n
To achieve this goal of maximum range, endurance, and stable flight, the AirSloths team developed the simulation with MATLAB and Simulink to study the effect of tail contribution and optimize the vehicle design. This code was developed with the following assumptions:<\/div>\n