Avionics

10AE82

Unit III
Electronic Flight Control Systems
 Electronic Flight Control System
Contents
I. Fly-by-wire system: - basic concept and features.
II. Pitch and Roll rate: - command and response.
III. Control Laws.
IV. Frequency response of a typical FBW actuator.
V. Cooper Harper scale.
VI. Redundancy and failure survival.
VII.Common mode of failures and effects analysis.
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 Flight Control Systems

• Concorde – First civil A/c to intoduce FBW system with a mehcaical back
up.
• A320 – First from Airbus.
• B777 – Boeing’s first civil implimentation.
• Generally we have:
– Primary Flight Control or FBW
– Autopilot/Flight Director System
– Flight Management System (FMS)

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 Inter-relationship of Flight control functions

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 Inter-relationship of Flight control functions – Contd ..
• FBW comprises the inner loop, concerned with controlling the attitude of
aircraft.
– Inputs from the pilot (control column of side stick, rudders or throttles) will
determine the attitude.
– The a/c pitch, roll and yaw are presented on the flight display and nav
display.
• The autopilot flight director systems (AFDS), performs additional control loop
closure to control the aircraft trajectory
– It controls the speed, height and heading. Nav functions like heading hold,
heading acquire are also included.
– Approach and guidance is provided by coupling the autopilot with ILS or
MLS.
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 Inter-relationship of Flight control functions – Contd ..
• The FMS performs the navigation or mission functions, ensuring that the
FBW and AFDS system position the a/c at the correct points or way points.
– Multi Functional Control and Display Unit (MCDU), also know as CDU.

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 Flight Control – frames of reference

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 Generic Primary FCS - FBW
• Pitch control is usually effected by four powered flight control actuators
powering four elevator sections.
• Pitch trim is undertaken by means of two Tailplane Horizontal Stabilizer
(THS) actuators . operating as normal and standby systems . which move the
entire horizontal tailplane surface or stabilizer (or stabilator in US parlance).
• Roll control is invoked by using the left and right ailerons, augmented as
required by the extension of a number of spoilers on the inboard wing
sections.

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 Generic Flight Control System – Civil aircraft.

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 Generic Primary FCS – FBW – Contd..
• Yaw control by means of two or three rudder sections.
• Both wing sets of spoilers may be extended together to perform the
following functions:
- Inboard spoiler sections to provide a speed brake function in flight,
allowing the aircraft to be rapidly slowed to the desired airspeed,
usually during descent.
- Use of all spoilers in a ground spoiler or lift dump function during the
landing roll, helps it to reduce the lift drastically.

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 Generic Primary FCS – FBW – Contd..
• Direct inputs from the pilot’s controls or inputs from the autopilot feed the
necessary guidance signals into a number of flight control computers
depending upon the system architecture.
• These computers modify the flight control demands according to a number
of aerodynamic and other parameters such that effective and harmonized
handling characteristics are achieved.
• In addition, secondary flight control or high lift augmentation is provided by
leading-edge slats and trailing-edge flaps.

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 Generic Primary FCS – FBW – Contd..
• On the Boeing 777, the aileron and flap functions are combined by the use
of two inboard flaperons.
• Operation of the speed brakes, flaps, and slats is initiated by dedicated
control levers located on the flight deck central console.

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 Generic Primary FCS – FBW – Contd..
Mechanical back - Up
• FBW systems employ some form of direct mechanical link as a back-
up system:
• In the Boeing 777 system, alternate pitch trim levers are
mechanically connected directly to the horizontal stabilator.
– A direct mechanical link from the rudder to one pair of spoilers
allows roll control to be maintained in a standby mode.
• In Airbus, the mechanical trim wheel can alter the position of the tail-
plane surface for pitch control.
– Inputs from the rudder pedals can alter the inputs to the three
rudder actuators. A combination of pitch trim and rudder pedals
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 I. FBW – Basic Concepts and Features
• The total elimination of all the complex mechanical control runs and
linkages – all commands and signals are transmitted electrically along
wires, hence the name fly-by-wire.
• The interposition of a computer between the pilot’s commands and the
control surface actuators.
• The aircraft motion sensors which feed back the components of the
aircraft’s angular and linear motion to the computer.
• The air data sensors which supply height and airspeed information to the
computer.
• Redundancy to enable failures in the system to be absorbed. The flaps can
also be continually controlled by the Flight Control Computer.

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 I. FBW – Basic Concepts and Features – Contd..
• Basic Elements of a FBW flight Control System

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 I. FBW – Basic Concepts and Features – Contd..
• Electrical Data Transmission
• FBW Control Surface Actuation
• Motion Sensor Feedback
• Air Data
• High Integrity Failure Survival Computing System
• Very High Overall System Integrity

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 I. FBW – Basic Concepts and Features – Contd..
• Flight Control System Bus Configuration

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 I. FBW – Basic Concepts and Features – Contd..
• Quadruplex Actuation System

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 I. FBW – Basic Concepts and Features – Contd..
• Integrated Air Data Transducer System (BAE Systems)

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 I. FBW – Basic Concepts and Features – Contd..
• FBW Control Stick/ Passive FBW inceptor features

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 I. FBW – Basic Concepts and Features – Contd..
• FBW actuator

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 I. FBW – Basic Concepts and Features – Contd..
Advantages of FBW Control
• Increased Performance
• Reduced Weight
• FBW Control Sticks/ Passive FBW Inceptors
• Automatic Stabilization
• Carefree Manoeuvring
• Ability to Integrate Additional Controls
• Ease of Integration of the Autopilot
• Closed Loop Manoeuvre Command Control
a. Roll Rate Command System
b. Pitch Rate Command FBW loop

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 II. Closed Loop Manoeuvre Command Control
• A closed-loop manoeuvre command control is achieved by increasing the
gain of the motion sensor feedback loops.
• The control surface actuators are thus controlled by the difference, or
error, between the pilot’s command signals and the measured
aircraft motion from the appropriate sensors,
• For example, pitch rate in the case of a pitch rate command system and
roll rate in the case of a roll rate command system.
• Other control terms may also be included such as airstream incidence
angles and possibly normal and lateral accelerations.
• The flight control computer derives the required control surface
movements for the aircraft to follow the pilot’s commands in a fast, well
damped manner.
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II. Closed Loop Manoeuvre Command Control – Contd..
• A well designed closed-loop control system offers the following advantages
over an open-loop control system:
(i) The steady-state output to input relationship is substantially
independent of changes in the loop gain provided this remains sufficiently
high.
(ii) The system bandwidth is improved and the phase lag when following
a dynamically varying input is reduced.
(iii) A fast well damped response, which is little affected by normal
changes in the loop gain, can generally be achieved by suitable design of the
control loop.

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 II. Pitch Rate Command FBW loop

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 II. Pitch Rate Command FBW loop -Contd
• Consider now what happens when the pilot exerts a force on the stick to
command a pitch rate.
• The aircraft pitch rate is initially zero so that the resultant pitch rate error
causes the computer to demand an appropriate deflection of the tail plane
from the trim position.
• The ensuing lift force acting on the tail plane exerts a pitching moment on
the aircraft about its CG causing the pitch attitude to change and the wing
incidence to increase.
• The resulting lift force from the wings provides the necessary force at right
angles to the aircraft’s velocity vector to change the direction of the aircraft’s
flight path so that the aircraft turns in the pitch plane.

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 II. Pitch Rate Command FBW loop - Contd
• The increasing pitch rate is fed back to the computer reducing the tail
plane angle until a condition is reached when the aircraft pitch rate is
equal to the commanded pitch rate.
• The pitch rate error is thus brought to near zero and maintained near zero
by the automatic control loop.
• Pitch rate command enables precise ‘fingertip’ control to be achieved.
• For example, to change the pitch attitude to climb, gentle pressure back on
the stick produces a pitch rate of a few degrees per second; let the stick go
back to the central position and the pitch rate stops in less than a second
with negligible overshoot with the aircraft at the desired attitude.
• Increasing the stick force produces a proportionate increase in pitch rate.

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 II. Roll Rate Command System

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 II. Roll Rate Command System – Contd..
• Consider what happens when the pilot pushes the stick to command a roll rate.
• At the instant the command is applied the roll rate is zero, so that the roll rate error
produces a large aileron deflection.
• This creates a relatively large rolling movement on the aircraft so that the roll rate
builds up rapidly.
• The roll rate error is rapidly reduced until the roll rate error is near zero, and the
aircraft roll rate is effectively equal to the commanded roll rate.
• Because the roll rate creates an aerodynamic damping moment which opposes the
rate of roll, the aileron deflection cannot be reduced to zero but is reduced to a value
where the rolling moment produced is equal and opposite to the aerodynamic
damping moment.
• The controller gain is sufficiently high, however, to keep the steady-state roll rate
error to a small value.
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 II. Roll Rate Command System – Contd..
• A much faster roll response can be obtained compared with a
conventional open loop system, as can be seen in the following figure, the
variation in response across the flight envelope is also much less.
• Aircraft need to bank to turn, so that a fast, precise roll response is
required
• Push the stick sideways and a roll rate directly proportional to the force
exerted on the stick is obtained. Return the stick to the centre when the
desired bank angle is reached and the aircraft stops rolling, without any
overshoot.

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 II. Roll Rate Command System – Contd..

• Roll rate response

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 III. Control Laws
• The term ‘control laws’ is used to define the algorithms relating the control
surface demand to the pilot’s stick command and the various motion sensor
signals and the aircraft height, speed and Mach number.
• As an example, a very simple basic pitch rate command law would be:

• where ηD is the tail plane demand angle; θi is the pilot’s input command; q is the
pitch rate; K is the forward loop gain; and Gq is the pitch rate gearing (Gain
coefficient).
• In practice, additional control terms from other sensors (e.g., incidence and
normal acceleration may be required.
• The value of K and the sensor gearings would also almost certainly need to be
varied with height and airspeed by an air data gain scheduling system
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 III. Control Laws Contd..
• Control terms proportional to the derivative or rate of change of error and
integral of error are also used to shape and improve the closed-loop
response.
• Proportional plus derivative of error control provides a phase advance
characteristic to compensate for the lags in the system, for instance
actuator response, and hence improve the loop stability.
• This increases the damping of the aircraft response and reduces the
overshoot to a minimum when responding to an input or disturbance.
• The control term is filtered to limit the increase in gain at high frequencies
and smooth the differentiation process which amplifies any noise present
in the error signal

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 III. Control Laws Contd..
• A more physical explanation of the
damping action of a phase advance
element is shown in the figure.
• This shows how a control moment
which is proportional to error plus
rate of change of error (suitably
smoothed) changes sign before the
error reaches zero and hence applies a
retarding moment to decelerate and
progressively reduce the velocity
before the error reaches zero and
hence minimises the overshoot.

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 III. Control Laws Contd..
• Proportional plus integral of error control eliminates steady-state errors
and reduces the following lag.
• The integral of error term increases the loop gain at low frequencies up to
theoretically infinite gain at dc so that there are zero steady-state errors
due to out of trim external moments or forces acting on the aircraft.
• The error when following a low frequency input command is also reduced
and is zero for a constant input rate.
• The magnitude of the steady-state error is dependent on the loop gain, K
which in turn is limited by the loop stability.

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 III. Control Laws Contd..
• The effect of ‘proportional plus integral’
error control can be seen in the figure
• The steady-state error is zero; however
the integral of the error is not zero and
reaches a value sufficient to generate the
necessary control moment to balance the
trim moment.
• The value of an integral term control can
thus be seen in achieving automatic
trimming of the control surfaces.

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