Flight dynamics and simulation of a generic aircraft for aeroservoelastic design

Pedro Tomás Marques Martins Margarido

Key information

Authors:

Pedro Tomás Marques Martins Margarido (Pedro Tomás Marques Martins Margarido)

Supervisors:

André Calado Marta (André Calado Marta)

Published in

11/14/2016

Abstract

The emerging market of the aviation sector begins to request the need for tools to study the aeroservoelastic behaviour of an aircraft. There are mathematical models for this kind of study, but its interpretation is not easy and many use the frequency domain. In this thesis the aeroservoelastic equations of motion of a general aircraft for equilibrium conditions in time domain were developed. A program was also developed, produced in C++, which integrates these same equations, and that in the future may be included in other projects as an interconnection tool between different fields of aeronautics, such as aerodynamics, structural dynamics and flight control. To develop this tool, various integration methods were inspected and consequently the utility of each one was found. Aeroelasticity consequences were also discussed and used to introduce the optimal control. It was also carried out a flight simulator in MATLAB using optimal control. The optimal control behaviour, more specifically the linear quadratic regulator, in the flight dynamics was also studied. This flight simulator allows the simulation of the motion for a general aircraft, adopting a set of aerodynamics derivatives of general aircraft from the literature, on turbulent air flows and in engine failure cases in aircraft up to five engines. The simulation study in this thesis had more in mind to ensure that the aircraft maintains its equilibrium and course in critical situations, as referred above.