Integrated Aircraft and Propulsion System Simulation for Control and Performance Optimization

摘要

Commercial airliners need to meet stringent regulations and are subject to intense commercial competitive pressure for fuel economy. During an aircraft and engine program, the matching of engine to aircraft is a complex task that covers multiple domains. In particular, the optimization of flight controls, flight trajectories with respect to fuel economy, noise footprint and pollutant emissions must be considered. Besides performance metrics, safety and fault cases must be analysed, such as engine faults during take-off. Historically, each domain would conduct simulations focusing on their own domain with a limited data exchange between domains. We introduce here a simulation method that integrates several key domains: flight dynamics, flight controls, engine controls, engine dynamics, engine exhaust, aircraft noise, fuel economy, flight planning. In “one-pass”, a complete flight route can be simulated, from departure gate to arrival gate, and corresponding performance metrics can be obtained.