Electrical heating of gas in the working volume of agricultural airships

   Remotely controlled airships offer promising solutions for terrain monitoring, livestock observation, and relaying signals from ground-based sensors in agricultural settings. Controlling an airship’s altitude by adjusting the gas temperature within its working volume presents an efficient approach. This can be achieved through rapid and uniform electrical heating of the gas using onboard power. This article proposes a parallelepiped-shaped electric heater, positioned inside the airship’s working volume, where the edges of the parallelepiped act as high-resistivity, current-conducting elements. To minimize weight, the design reduces the number of thick wires by supplying electrical energy from the onboard battery to two of the most distant points on the heater. The key design criterion is achieving a uniform heat release rate per unit length across all current-conducting elements. To determine the necessary parameters, the authors developed an algorithm to calculate the required resistances. Based on Kirchhoff’s laws, they established the relationship between element resistances, power source voltage, and current distribution. The algorithm incorporates additional conditions to solve three systems of 25 algebraic equations, linking the electrical parameters. The results demonstrate that the ratio of maximum to minimum element lengths, the source voltage, and the desired power uniquely determine the resistances ensuring uniform heat release per unit length across all elements. Furthermore, the algorithm identifies conditions for adjusting power and heat release by modifying the electric heater’s resistances. The presented algorithm enables rapid calculation of resistance values for the current-conducting elements, guaranteeing consistent heat generation throughout the branched
electrical circuit.

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