Simulation of ice effects on aircraft controllability

The aircraft icing parameter was used to describe the ice effects on the aircraft. A nonlinear six degree-of-freedom computational flight dynamics model was built. The aircraft icing parameter was taken into the flight dynamics model to build up a time-varying simulation model. On this basis, two autopilot modes, namely, the altitude hold mode and roll attitude hold mode were designed. Furthermore, the simulation model was verified by comparing to the flight test data. Eventually, simulations of both open loop and autopilot mode were taken under certain fight condition and icing environment. The results of simulations show that icing has several adverse effects on the controllability of aircraft, including trimming characteristics, response characteristics, and the autopilot performance.