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Flight and engine control laws integration based on robust control and energy principles

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Abstract

Integration aspects of flight and engine control laws in the context of the longitudinal motion control of commercial aircraft are the concern in this paper. The application of the entailing concepts in the scope of an energy-based multivariable control design is developed along with a case study using dedicated aircraft and engine models. It consists of an enhancement of the Total Energy Control System (TECS), which is modified with respect to the following aspects: (a) the inclusion of engine feedback variables to its core control loop, which is extended and improved with respect to the command interface from the throttle control channel, and (b) the use of a two degree of freedom linear control law based on independent multivariable gain scheduled feed-forward and feedback controllers. Additionally, a systematic design framework is proposed to account for the robustness of stability and performance of the control law in face of plant uncertainties, as well as to allow the evaluation and integration of engine restrictions already in the early design stages.

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Data availability

Source material for aircraft model is available at: http://www.faulttolerantcontrol.nl/index.html; - Source material for engine model is available at: https://github.com/nasa/T-MATS.

Code availability

Not applicable.

Abbreviations

\(\dot{E}\) :

Specific total energy rate

g :

Gravitational constant

\(\dot{L}\) :

Specific total energy distribution rate

\(N_1\) :

Low pressure assembly engine shaft speed

\(N_2\) :

High pressure assembly engine shaft speed

\(P_{s3}\) :

Static pressure at the exit of the engine high pressure compressor

\(T_{45}\) :

Temperature at the exit of the engine high pressure turbine

q :

Aircraft pitch rate

V :

Aircraft true airspeed

\(W_f\) :

Engine fuel flow rate

\(\gamma\) :

Aircraft flight path angle

\(\theta\) :

Aircraft pitch angle

T :

Engine thrust

\(\delta _{elev}\) :

Elevator deflection

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Acknowledgements

The second author acknowledges partial support through CNPq Grant \(\# 306900/2018-1\) (Brazil).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica, São José dos Campos, Brazil, 12228-900

    Thiago Giusti Degaspare & Karl Heinz Kienitz

  2. Flight Control Laws Engineer, Embraer Commercial Aviation, São José dos Campos, Brazil, 12227-901

    Thiago Giusti Degaspare

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  1. Thiago Giusti Degaspare
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Degaspare, T.G., Kienitz, K.H. Flight and engine control laws integration based on robust control and energy principles. CEAS Aeronaut J 13, 905–921 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13272-022-00599-x

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