Aircraft Flight Dynamics with Simulated Ice Accretion
Devesh Pokhariyal, Michael B. Bragg, Tim Hutchison,
and Jason Merret
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
ABSTRACT
The effect of ice accretion on aircraft performance
and control during trim conditions was modeled and analyzed. A six degree-of-freedom
computational flight dynamics model was used to study the effect of ice accretion
on the aircraft dynamics. The effects of turbulence and sensor noise were
modeled and filters were developed to remove unwanted noisy data without
affecting the short period and phugoid modes. This study is part of a larger
research program to develop smart icing system technology. The goal of the
study reported here was to develop techniques to sense the effect and location
of ice accretion on aircraft performance and control during trimmed flight.
Control surface steady and unsteady hinge-moments were modeled as a potential
aerodynamic performance sensor. Microburst and gravity wave atmospheric disturbances
were modeled and their effects on the aircraft performance and control were
compared to that of an icing encounter. The simulations showed that atmospheric
disturbances could be differentiated from icing encounters. The hinge-moment
sensors proved very useful in identifying the wing versus tail location of
aircraft icing.