Effect of vapor condensation on ascending performance of stratospheric airship

This paper reports a numerical investigation on the effects of water vapor condensing inside the air bag of a stratospheric airship on its ascending performance. The kinetic and thermal model considering vapor condensation was established, based on which a computer program was written in Fortran. The simulation results show that the vapor condensation remarkably affects the kinetic and thermal characteristics of the stratospheric airship in the ascent process. During the ascent process below 11 km, a large amount of latent heat is released when the water vapor in the air inside the air bag of the stratospheric airship condenses, which results in the increase of the temperature and the reduction of the weight of the air in the air bag, causing the airship to speed up, the accelerated expansion of the helium, and the decrease of the helium temperature in the helium bag. When the flight altitude is higher than 11 km, the effect of vapor condensation on the kinetic and thermal characteristics of the stratospheric airship is negligible because vapor is virtually nonexistent in the air.