Multistate Design Approach to Analysis of Twin-Engine Aircraft Performance Robustness

作者：Agte Jeremy S^*; Borer Nicholas K; de Weck Olivier

来源：Journal of Aircraft, 2012, 49(3): 781-793.

DOI：10.2514/1.C031338

This article introduces an integrated approach for the early-stage multistate design and analysis of aircraft requiring robust performance across a range of off-nominal system states. It is applied to the case study of an existing twin-engine aircraft, enabled by the development of a multimodal performance model calibrated with flight-test data collected at Edwards Air Force Base Flight Test Center. The methodology includes elements for determining responses in aircraft expected performance and availability to changes in static design variables (geometry), dynamic design variables (control gains), and component failure rates, which are the three driving input categories affecting performance robustness. This is accomplished using Markov chain analysis within the design loop to stochastically model state transitions based on failure rates as well as gain optimization through simulation to ensure controllability at each design point. Results showed unsafe performance in 15% of the King Air geometry-state responses under investigation. Although many occurred in the fully failed state and were expected, five occurred in partially degraded states where the majority of geometries were able to meet performance requirements. Furthermore, this behavior clearly exhibited itself in the resulting design sensitivities, confirming that such an approach allows designers to identify elements that might drive system loss through analysis of performance changes across system states and their respective response to changes in design variables.

• 出版日期2012-6