Co-design of aircraft vertical tail and control laws with distributed electric propulsion and flight envelop constraints

Abstract

A sequential co-design framework has been developed in a previous study (Nguyen-Van et al., IFAC-PapersOnLine 52(12):514–519, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ifacol.2019.11.295 , 2019)) to design an aircraft using active differential thrust. Differential thrust is used instead of a rudder to generate the yawing moment. The objective is to dimension in parallel the vertical tail surface area, the electric motor bandwidth and control laws while maintaining imposed handling qualities. This paper focuses on the development of a single step co-design taking into account handling qualities, flight envelop requirements and motor saturation. Additional and compatible optimisation constraints are found based on a sensitivity analysis. It reveals the importance of electric motor bandwidth with respect to aircraft natural stability. The direct co-design leads to an optimised trade-off between vertical tail and electric motor bandwidth.