Active Control for Blended Wing Body Aircraft

The ACFA 2020 project at a glance

Rudolf Maier
EADS Innovation Works

Aerodays 2011, Madrid, March 30 – April 1

 Content

• ACFA 2020 - Active Control for Flexible 2020 Aircraft

– The project at a glance
– Main objectives
– Partnership
– Workplan

• ACFA 2020 Achievements

– Aircraft design
– Dynamic modelling
– Active control concepts

• Summary and Outlook

 ACFA 2020 Project Description

• ACFA 2020 deals with

– the pre-design of a new 450 passenger BWB type aircraft and
– adequate active control concepts for BWB type aircraft

• Blended Wing Body (BWB) type aircraft are considered as most promising
concept to achieve major ACARE 2020 goals
– 50% fuel reduction
– 10db Noise reduction per operation

• Start date: 01.03.2008

• Duration: 42 Month
• Total Budget: 4.588 Mio. €
 Main Objectives of the Project
Drivers
ACARE Vision
2020
50% reduced fuel
consumption and related
CO2 emissions
Reduction of external
noise by 10 dB per
operation in the long
terms
Blended wing body type
aircraft most promising
architecture to achieve
this goals
Challenges ACFA 2020 Objectives
Complex active
(structural) Provide solutions for the
control system active control system of
for BWB type BWB type aircrafts
aircrafts not yet
addressed
Pre-design of the ACFA
No design for
mid-size, 2020 aircraft
configuration, a
marketable flying
wing aircraft in marketable medium sized
European ultra efficient
Europe available
flying wing aircraft
 Objectives

Main targets for active control laws to be developed:

• Make BWB type aircrafts even more efficient through reduction of structural
weight enabled by active control
– Alleviation of aerodynamic loads to reduce the weight of BWB type aircrafts and allow for
further improved fuel efficiency

• Make BWB aircrafts more passenger friendly by improving ride comfort with the
use of active control
– Improvement of ride comfort by 50% in comparison to the baseline flying wing (BWB
type) aircraft concepts

• Provide the required handling qualities of BWB type aircrafts, such as desired
gust response, pitch and Dutch roll damping (considering also the eventual
negative static stability margin for further improved fuel efficiency).
 13 Partners from 9 countries

EADS Innovation Works

Airbus Operations
Alenia Aeronautica S.p.A.
HELLENIC AEROSPACE INDUSTRY S.A.
Israel Aerospace Industries
Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V.
ONERA
FOI, Swedish Defence Research Agency
Technical University Munich
• Institute of Lightweight Structures
• Institute for Aerospace Systems
• Institute of Aerodynamics and Fluid Mechanics
Vienna University of Technology
• Institute of Mechanics and Mechatronics
Czech Technical University
National Technical University Athens
Bialystok Technical University
 ACFA 2020 Work Package Structure

WP0 WP1: Aircraft configurations definition and down-selection

(EADS) (Airbus)
Management Catia / FEM Model for 450PAX
BWB (ACFA 2020)

Exploitation WP2: Dynamic modelling

Dissemination (DLR)
Requirements on ROM w.r.t.
ROM (NACRE, ACFA 2020) control surfaces & model output
(sensor positions)

WP3: Development & Evaluation of active control concepts

(EADS)
Control laws & achieved reductions in loads /
improvement in ride comfort

WP4: Assessments & Integration HiFi closed loop

simulation &
(ONERA) structural resizing
 Aircraft Design

Two aircraft concepts considered

• Blended wing body aircraft with a short ultra
wide cabin (BWB)
• Aircraft with carry-through wing box with a more
slender cabin (CWB)

Operational performance
• Long Range Cruise Mach number: 0.85
• Maximum range at Max Pax Payload: 7200nm
• Approach speed should be < 150kt
• Maximum operating Mach number MMO: 0.89
• Maximum operating speed VMO: 340kts CAS
• Max cruise altitude: 43100ft

Estimated block fuel per pax is 13.3% less

for the BWB at max. range mission
 Dynamic Modelling - Aerodynamic

• For the control design tasks

appropriate models required
• Models have been generated for the
NACRE BWB and the ACFA 2020
BWB
• Model Inputs:
– Control surface commands
– Turbulence inputs

• Model Outputs
– Flightmechanics quantities
– Accelerations and angular velocities
– internal moments and forces for loads
Source: Institute of Lightweight Structures - TUM
evaluation
– comfort evaluation in the cabin
Dynamic Modelling – Tool Set

Order Reduction
ROM

Source: Institute of Lightweight Structures - TUM

 Control of BWB versus conventional aircraft

Conventional Wing/Tube Configuration Blended Wing Body Configuration

Ailerons for roll/lateral Flaps distributed over whole

Elevators for control and wing Split flaps and trailing edge for
longitudinal and rudder bending vibration winglets for longitudinal/lateral control, gust
for lateral control alleviation lateral control and maneuver load alleviation and
multi-modal vibration alleviation

Spoilers for maneuver and Spoilers for maneuver and

gust loads alleviation gust loads alleviation
 Active Control Objectives

• Active stability augmentation (Mach and Altitude scheduled)

• Provide pre-specified pitch/roll/yaw response to pilot input (Mach, Altitude

and fuel mass scheduled)

• Alleviation of gust and maneuver loads (Mach, Altitude and fuel-mass

scheduled)

• Increase of passenger ride comfort

 Control Concept

Control surface commands

Atmospheric
disturbances
Feedback signals
Pilot input •Rigid body motion
•Structural vibrations
(Adaptive)
Reference Sensor Inner Loop
Feedforward
• Alpha probe Controller
• Differential pressure
Controller
• LIDAR
 Adaptive Feedforward Control for Gust Load
and Vibration Control
Flight test validation of adaptive SISO feed-forward control on the ATTAS (Advanced
Technology and Testing Aircraft System)

Turbulence induced vibration correlated

with angle of attack measurement at
flight log sensor cancelled
 Gust Load Alleviation on NACRE BWB

Control Surfaces on • Combination of feedforward and feedback

NACRE Flying Wing
(courtesy of DLR) control techniques can largely improve
gust load alleviation

1g loads
(courtesy of CTU)

Sizing
Gust

Loads
Gust ID GLAS
A/C
FCS Wing Root Bending Moment
in 1-Cosine Gust
Control Setup
 Feedback & feedforward control: loads alleviation,
maneuver shaping, higher damping of structural modes

• Numerous state-of-the-art control design methods are assessed and combined:

• H-infinity-, H2-optimal control design, H-infinity fixed-order optimization
• Convex controller synthesis, LMI methods
• Robust and scheduled extensions of these design methods (LFT modelling and
D-G-K-iteration, Q-µ-synthesis, multimodel designs)
• Robust eigenstructure assignment, LQG control
• This allows to optimize for all objectives under the given stringent set of constraints
• First results for the ACFA BWB:
Reduction of sizing gust loads by
Robust damping of first two Reduction of sizing roll maneuver time-domain optimization
antisymmetric flexible modes loads by time-domain optimization
Rel. Wing root moment

Rel. Wing root moment

Time in s
 Summary and Outlook

• BWB proofed high efficiency also for medium size a/c (450PAX)
• Major part of the project deals with the development of advanced control concepts
• So far control concepts for the NACRE BWB were investigated
– Ride comfort can be largely improved by combined feedback and adaptive feedforward
control
– Adaptive feedforward control concept validated by flight tests with ATTAS
– Gust loads can be significantly alleviated by combined feedback and feedforward
concept
• Controller designs for ACFA 2020 BWB currently on the way
• Final steps are:
– validate the simulations based on reduced order models by closed loop HiFi simulations
(CFD+active control loop)
– Evaluate possible weight savings due to loads alleviation by resizing the ACFA 2020
BWB
For more detailed information on ACFA 2020:
4th European Conference for Aerospace Sciences
Saint Petersburg, Russia, July 4, 2011 – July 8, 2011
www.eucass.ru

Further Information: www.acfa2020.eu