A Numerical Model of a Towed Cable-Body System
by
Christopher K. H. Chin
RMIT University
Coauthors: R. L. May, H. J. Connell

Towed bodies are frequently deployed from aircraft on thin cables up to several kilometres in length. These bodies are used as targets or may be part of an aircraft's defence system by acting as decoys for missiles. Accurate prediction of the position of the body and the tension in the cable as the aircraft manoeuvres is needed, not only for safety considerations, but also in order to design the various components of the towing system.

In this paper, the motion of the towed body is described by a six degree of freedom model. The partial differential equations governing the motion of the cable-body system are solved numerically by discretizing them using the finite difference method. The resulting system of non-linear equations is solved iteratively at each time step.

The numerical scheme, which allows for the deployment or retrieval of the cable, is described and results presented for several manoeuvres of the towing aircraft.

Date received: July 25, 1999