The Impact of Control Allocation on Optimal Control Surface Positioning and Sizing

The Impact of Control Allocation on Optimal Control Surface Positioning and Sizing: A comparative study for a PrandtlPlane

Wahler, Nicolas (TU Delft Aerospace Engineering)

la Rocca, G. (mentor)
Varriale, C. (graduation committee)
Oliviero, F. (graduation committee)
van Kampen, E. (graduation committee)

Delft University of Technology

Aerospace Engineering

2021-02-19

Classically, aircraft controls are designed such that every control surface type primarily influences a single degree of freedom by creating a moment. Increased availability of computational resources and novel aircraft configuration allow a deviation from this approach and to utilize individual control surfaces to generate moments around multiple axes. The research investigates the impact of control allocation algorithms on the required control surface span and area for a box-wing configuration aircraft, the PrandtlPlane. The unique geometry of two full wings allows more flexibility in control surface placement. An optimization system for automatic control surface sizing under the constraints of adequate handling qualities has been developed and used to compare mechanical gearing, the constrained pseudo inverse, and the direct allocation algorithms. The results show that the PrandtlPlane configuration can benefit from the use of control allocation, showing a clear advantage of the direct allocation algorithm.

box wing
PrandtlPlane
control allocation
direct allocation
pseudo inverse
mechanical gearing
control surface
Optimisation framework
box-wing

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:5e9baf63-8a8f-4c1b-98cd-5aa993938027

Student theses

master thesis

© 2021 Nicolas Wahler