Numerical Comparison of Propulsion Configurations for Stratospheric Airships: Stabilization and Control Effort

This paper presents a comparative analysis of propulsion system architectures for a stratospheric airship in the context of stabilization efficiency. Three configurations are considered: one with a single gimbaled thruster, one with two thrusters on the body, and one with three thrusters located on the tail. A dynamic model of the airship was developed using the SILCROAD simulation library in MATLAB, incorporating equations of motion and a stability augmentation system (SAS) based on proportional-integral feedback control. Optimization of control gains was performed using Ansys OptiSLang with multi-objective and single-objective criteria that included stabilization time and control effort. The results indicate that the single-thruster configuration achieves the best trade-off between stability performance and energy efficiency.