Flight Control Law Design using H-infinity optimal control for Gust Load Alleviation of Flexible Aircraft

Abdelmoez Elagroudy; Christian Weiser; Simon Schulz; Jan Tilmans

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CEAS EuroGNC 2024

Flight Control Law Design using H-infinity optimal control for Gust Load Alleviation of Flexible Aircraft

Abdelmoez Elagroudy	Research Associate, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Institute of System Dynamics and Control, 82234, Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany.
Christian Weiser	Research Associate, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Institute of System Dynamics and Control, 82234, Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany.
Simon Schulz	Research Associate, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Institute of System Dynamics and Control, 82234, Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany.
Jan Tilmans	Research Associate, RWTH Aachen University, Institute of Flight System Dynamics, 52062, Aachen, Germany.

Abstract:
This paper presents the design of a gust load alleviation control law for a transport aircraft, represented by a dynamic flexible model. The control law reduces the structural loads and thus helps to decrease the aircraft's structural weight. For the gust alleviation control, a linear full-order state-space controller is designed based on the 𝐻�� optimal control method. The control law design uses an accelerometer on the wing tip as a sensor and controls the outboard ailerons to alleviate the structural loads, in particular the wing root bending moment. The controller's load reduction performance is evaluated by simulating aircraft response to different vertical discrete gusts and the robustness is assessed by considering the worst-case combination of gain and phase errors. Finally, the load reduction performance is investigated for different actuator deflection rate limits, and the complete strategy for load alleviation using sensors on the wing tips is assessed.

Keywords: Flight Control Law Design; Flexible Aircraft; Gust Load Alleviation; H-infinity Control; Robust Control; Optimal Control; Actuator limitations

View PDF CEAS-GNC-2024-040

Abdelmoez Elagroudy, Christian Weiser, Simon Schulz, Jan Tilmans: Flight Control Law Design using H-infinity optimal control for Gust Load Alleviation of Flexible Aircraft. Proceedings of the 2024 CEAS EuroGNC conference. Bristol, UK. June 2024. CEAS-GNC-2024-040.

BibTeX entry:

@Incollection{CEAS-GNC-2024-040,

    author = {Elagroudy, Abdelmoez and Weiser, Christian and Schulz, Simon and Tilmans, Jan},

    title = {Flight Control Law Design using H-infinity optimal control for Gust Load Alleviation of Flexible Aircraft},

    booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2024 {CEAS EuroGNC} conference},

    address = {Bristol, UK},

    month = jun,

    year = {2024},

    note = {CEAS-GNC-2024-040}

}