Evaluation Environment for Cascaded and Partly Decentralized Multi-Rate Load Alleviation Controllers

Abstract

This paper presents a simulation environment to evaluate the load alleviation performance of partly decentralized and multi-rate load alleviation control structures. The environment is implemented in MATLAB® and Simulink® and includes several parts written in C++. The proposed control architecture targets all types of EASA CS 25 / FAR Part 25 aircraft. In this work, the application to a Generic Long Range Aircraft research model is considered. The architecture includes new sensor technologies and related load control functions, like a lidar-based feedforward control loop, centralized rigid-body and flexible control laws as well as fast local feedback control loops, enabling quasi-immediate reaction of the wing to external disturbances. The features of the simulation environment are discussed in detail along with this controller structure and the considered aircraft model.