Wake Impact Alleviation Control Functions and Sensor Requirements

Abstract

Active control technology can be applied to alleviate wake vortex effects on aircraft and support the pilot to carry out his control task. Aircraft equipped with such a controller will be less affected by unforeseen wake vortex encounters or will even be able to follow another aircraft closer than authorized by the current separation distances without any compromise concerning safety. The application of such an approach requires the accurate determination of the flow disturbance to calculate the necessary countermeasures. Modern LIDAR technology has the potential to measure the flow field in front of the aircraft and to provide the required disturbance information in advance before it affects the aircraft. This paper summarizes the status of the work performed during the last years and the current activities. This includes the assessment of a wake vortex impact alleviation strategy with forward-looking sensors in offline simulations and flight tests as well as the derivation of required characteristics of the LIDAR sensor. For the analysis of the sensor requirements different sensor models are developed and a detailed sensor parameter sensitivity study is performed.