Evaluating the Effects of Control Surfaces Failure on the GTM

TL;DR

This study investigates how failures in lateral control surfaces affect the maneuvering flight envelope of the NASA Generic Transport Model, providing insights for emergency planning and resilient control system development.

Contribution

It offers a comprehensive analysis of lateral control surface failures on the flight envelope using high-fidelity data, identifying key parameters and failure impacts.

Findings

Failure degrees significantly reduce feasible trim points.

Key parameters confine the flight envelope boundary.

Trend analysis reveals failure effects on maneuvering capabilities.

Abstract

Despite the advances in aircraft guidance and control systems technology, Loss of Control remains as the main cause of the fatal accidents of large transport aircraft. Loss of Control is defined as excursion beyond the allowable flight envelope and is often a consequence of upset condition if improper maneuver is implemented by the pilot. Hence, extensive research in recent years has focused on improving the current fault tolerant control systems and developing new strategies for loss of control prevention and recovery systems. However, success of such systems requires the perception of the damaged aircraft's dynamic behavior and performance, and understanding of its new flight envelope. This paper provides a comprehensive understanding of lateral control surfaces' failure effect on the NASA Generic Transport Model's maneuvering flight envelope; which is a set of attainable steady state maneuvers herein referred to as trim points. The study utilizes a massive database of the Generic Transport Model's high-fidelity maneuvering flight envelopes computed for the unimpaired case and wide ranges of aileron and rudder failure cases at different flight conditions. Flight envelope boundary is rigorously investigated and the key parameters confining the trim points at different boundary sections are identified. Trend analysis of the impaired flight envelopes and the corresponding limiting factors is performed which demonstrates the effect of various failure degrees on the remaining feasible trim points. Results of the post-failure analysis can be employed in emergency path planning and have potential uses in the development of aircraft resilient control and upset recovery systems.