Gust Load Alleviation for a Regional Aircraft with Actuator Oscillatory Failure Case

This paper details the development and application of fault tolerant controller to minimize the gust loading and against actuator faults on a regional aircraft. The expected benefits of the controller mainly include mitigation of gust load responses even when the control surfaces are experiencing actuator faults, reduction in weight, and improvement in passenger comfort. Model reference adaptive control and minimum error excitation suboptimal control techniques are utilized to design the fault tolerant controller. The performance effectiveness of the designed controller is tested through studying the control of the flexible aircraft numerical model with the worst discrete gust form a gust family. The simulation results show that the designed controller can effectively alleviate the structural loads on the flexible wing and maintain rigid motions in the event of gust disturbances.