Quantitative assessment of flight safety under atmospheric icing conditions

A quantitative assessment method is proposed to sense the specific effects of atmospheric icing conditions on flight safety. A six degree-of-freedom computational flight dynamics model is used to study the effects of ice accretion on aircraft dynamics, and a pilot model is also involved. In order to investigate icing severity under different icing conditions, support vector regression is applied in establishing relationship between aircraft icing parameter and weather conditions. Considering the characteristics of aircraft icing accidents, a risk probability assessment model optimized by the particle swarm method is developed to measure the safety level. In particular, angle of attack is chosen as a critical parameter in this method. Results presented in the paper for a series of simulation show that this method captures the basic effects of atmospheric icing conditions on flight safety, which may provide an important theoretical reference for icing accidents avoidance.

Studies on the Seizure of Rudder on the Flight Safety of an Aircraft

The demands of aircraft quality design criterion on main control system failure and subsequently instantaneous response were analyzed.According to the simulation,the flight characteristics of an aircraft were studied in different angle of rudder seizure.It demonstrated that when rudder seizure with high angle and pilot could not take action immediately,the flight parameters would change sharply.The yaw angle increased 50 degrees in 5 minutes,side velocity could attain 40 meters per-second,the angle of attack and sideslip would surpass 30 degrees,roll rate would reach -20 degrees per second,side load would arrive 0.6g.Simultaneity the angle of attack exceeded the limited angle,the aircraft would stall.If control wasn't working,the disaster would happen.These phenomena supply the sufficient information of the rudder malfunction. The validity of correcting yaw moment by asymmetry thrust was testified,the simulation results showed that even rudder seizure in most serious conditions,adopting asymmetry thrust can correct yaw moment caused by the rudder seizure.The judgment standards of flight safety level for the state of malfunction were given.The safety level was assessed caused by the rudder seizure.For an aircraft with two engines on one side,the pilots need to adjust the 4 engines to balance the asymmetric moment,the work load is increased enormously.According the flight safety standards,the safety level is level Ⅲ.

Flight safety oriented ice shape modulation using distributed plasma actuator units

Ice accretion on the wings seriously threatens the flight safety of an aircraft.From the perspectives of ensuring flight safety and saving power consumption,the ice shape modulation method using distributed plasma is proposed.Distributed plasma actuator units are designed to modulate the spanwise continuous ice at the leading edge into periodically segmented ice pieces,forming a wavy leading edge.Both airfoil and scaled aircraft model,with continuous and modulated ice,are experimentally investigated and simulated.Compared with the continuous ice,ice shape modulation can significantly improve the aerodynamic performance,flight control characteristics and flight safety.This method can save about half electric power,which is very beneficial for application.

Study on the Flight Safety of Russian Aviation Troops

Flight safety is foundation of supporting flight training and combat of aviation troops. PLAAF is equipped with a large amount of Russian-made aircraft,so a comprehensive analysis and study of the flight safety of Russian aviation troops is of great significance to our flight safety. This paper analyzes the flight safety of Russian aviation troops and the main reasons and problems in recent years,the main measures and experiences of the flight safety of Russian military are summarized,and the work plan of Russian aviation troops in the future are introduced.

Improving flight performance of UAVs by ice shape modulation

Aircraft icing poses a great threat to flight safety.In response to the characteristics of high-power consumption,large volume,and heavy weight of traditional anti-/de-icing technologies,the concept of ice shape modulation is proposed,which is called ice tolerant flight.Firstly,the flight performance of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle(UAV)was compared in three states:no ice,full ice,and modulated ice through flight tests.It was found that ice shape modulation has a significant improvement effect on the aerodynamic performance of aircraft under icing conditions.Under the three modulated ice shape conditions in this experiment,the lift coefficient of the UAV under different ice shape modulation conditions increased by 18%–33%,and the stalling angle was delayed by 3°-5°.Subsequently,the pressure distribution,streamlines in the flow field,and detached vortex distribution of the UAV model in these three states were obtained through numerical simulation,to study the mechanism of ice shape modulation on the aerodynamic performance of aircraft.The simulation found that the reason for the improvement of the wings effect after ice shape modulation is that the modulated area forms a leading-edge protrusion structure similar to a vortex generator.This structure prolongs the mixed flow region on the wings surface and reduces the trend of flow separation,which plays a role in increasing lift and reducing drag for UAVs under icing conditions.Finally,a reverse reachable set that can be used for unexpected state recovery is used as the definition of flight safety boundaries,and an aircraft dynamics model is established to obtain flight safety boundaries for different states.Research has found that the flight safety boundary of the UAV in a no ice state is greater than that in a modulated ice state,and the safety boundary in a modulated ice state is greater than that in a full ice state.Compared with the full ice state,the flight safety boundary after modulation has expanded by 27.0%.The scheme of ice shape modulation can provide a basis for the flight safety of aircraft under icing conditions.

Safety flight envelope calculation and protection control of UAV based on disturbance observer

In this paper,as for the unmanned air vehicle(UAV)under external disturbance,an attainable-equilibrium-set-based safety fight envelope(SFE)calculation method is proposed,based on which a prescribed performance protection control scheme is presented.Firstly,the existing definition of the SFE based on attainable equilibrium set(AES)is extended to make it consistent and suitable for the UAV system under disturbance.Secondly,a higher-order disturbance observer(HODO)is developed to estimate the disturbances and the disturbance estimation is applied in the computation of the SFE.Thirdly,by using the calculated SFE,a desired safety trajectory based on the time-varying safety margin function and first-order filter is developed to prevent the states of the UAV system from exceeding the SFE.Moreover,an SFE protection controller is proposed by combining the desired safety trajectory,backstepping method,HODO design,and prescribed performance(PP)control technique.In particular,the closed-loop system is established on the basis of disturbance estimation error,filter error,and tracking error.Finally,the stability of the closed-loop system is verified by the Lyapunov stability theory,and the simulations are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme.

Micro-behavior Analysis of Pilots Based on Human-Aircraft-Environment Interaction

Micro-behavior of pilots is one of the most remarkable aspects in flight safety research domain.The study of pilot’s micro-behavior and its function are of great significance to enhance active safety warnings of flight and evaluation of flight cadets.Based on the cognitive process of pilots,this paper explores the meanings and contents of previous research on the pilot’s micro-behavior.The history and research status of pilot’s micro-behavior are briefly introduced from the perspective of their psychology,physiology and physics.The current reviews mainly include the pilot’s characteristic,multi-information fusion,integrated cognitive and humanization about controlling environment,etc.The several methods of these studies are discussed,and the mechanisms,experimental contents and applicable conditions of pilot’s physiological,psychological and physical characteristics are analyzed.Meanwhile,the advantages and shortcomings of the existing research results are pointed out and analyzed.Combined with flight simulation experiment,the internal mechanism of pilot is explained.Furthermore,with the latest research in the modern flight field,and also from the specialization of application,the diversification of methodologies and the depth of investigation are provided,as well as the development trend of pilot’s micro-behavior analysis in the future.

PROBLEMS OF WINDBLAST

ＰＲＯＢＬＥＭＳＯＦＷＩＮＤＢＬＡＳＴＺｈａｎｇＹｕｎｒａｎ；ＷｕＧｕｉｒｏｎｇ（ＩｎｓｔｉｔｕｔｅｏｆＳｐａｃｅＭｅｄｉｃｏ－Ｅｎｇｉｎｅｅｒｉｎｇ，Ｂｅｉｊｉｎｇ，Ｃｈｉｎａ，１０００９４）ＰＲＯＢＬＥＭＳＯＦＷＩＮＤＢＬＡＳＴ￥ＺｈａｎｇＹｕｎ...

ANALYSISOFOPERATIONALCAUSESOFAIRPLANETAKEOFFACCIDENTS

The possibility and causes of flight accidents by operational error/deviation in takeoff are analyzed in this paper. The following three stages are each described individually: before liftoff, near liftoff and initial climb. Relations of accident/incident causal factors by operational error with intrinsical flight mechanics are discussed.

Characteristics of Heavy Rainfall at Changbei Airport

Based on the hourly observation data of heavy rainfall at Changbei Airport from 2011 to 2018,the main characteristics of heavy rainfall at the airport were analyzed. The results show that the heavy rainfall at Changbei Airport often occurred from April to August,most in June,mostly from the evening to midnight. Visibility and runway visual range( RVR) were often affected by the heavy rainfall,but the proportion of weather processes below the take-off and landing standards was relatively small. The main influencing factors of heavy rainfall were low vortex shear,front,high trough and subtropical high edge. The changing characteristics of meteorological elements in the high-centroid rainfall processes were more obvious,and they had greater impact on flight.

Flight Characteristics Analysis Based on QAR Data of a Jet Transport During Landing at a High-altitude Airport

Flight data of a twin-jet transport aircraft in revenue flight are analyzed for potential safety problems. Data from the quick access recorder （QAR） are first filtered through the kinematic compatibility analysis. The filtered data are then organized into longitudinal- and lateral-directional aerodynamic model data with dynamic ground effect. The dynamic ground effect requires the radio height and sink rate in the models. The model data are then refined into numerical models through a fuzzy logic algorithm without data smoothing in advance. These numerical models describe nonlinear and unsteady aerodynamics and are used in nonlinear flight dynamics simulation. For the jet transport under study, it is found that the effect of crosswind is significant enough to excite the Dutch roll motion. Through a linearized analysis in flight dynamics at every instant of time, the Dutch roll motion is found to be in nonlinear oscillation without clear damping of the amplitude. In the analysis, all stability derivatives vary with time and hence are nonlinear functions of state variables. Since the Dutch roll motion is not damped despite the fact that a full-time yaw damper is engaged, it is concluded that the design data for the yaw damper is not sufficiently realistic and the contribution of time derivative of sideslip angle to damping should be considered. As a result of nonlinear flight simulation, the vertical wind acting on the aircraft is estimated to be mostly updraft which varies along the flight path before touchdown. Varying updraft appears to make the descent rate more difficult to control to result in a higher g-load at touchdown.

Aerodynamic Modeling and Parameter Estimation from QAR Data of an Airplane Approaching a High-altitude Airport

Aerodynamic modeling and parameter estimation from quick accesses recorder （QAR） data is an important technical way to analyze the effects of highland weather conditions upon aerodynamic characteristics of airplane. It is also an essential content of flight accident analysis. The related techniques are developed in the present paper, including the geometric method for angle of attack and sideslip angle estimation, the extended Kalman filter associated with modified Bryson-Frazier smoother （EKF-MBF） method for aerodynamic coefficient identification, the radial basis function （RBF） neural network method for aerodynamic mod- eling, and the Delta method for stability/control derivative estimation. As an application example, the QAR data of a civil air- plane approaching a high-altitude airport are processed and the aerodynamic coefficient and derivative estimates are obtained. The estimation results are reasonable, which shows that the developed techniques are feasible. The causes for the distribution of aerodynamic derivative estimates are analyzed. Accordingly, several measures to improve estimation accuracy are put forward.

Airworthiness Compliance Verification Method Based on Simulation of Complex System

A study is conducted on a new airworthiness compliance verification method based on pilot-aircraft-environment complex system simulation. Verification scenarios are established by ＂block diagram＂ method based on airworthiness criteria. A pi- lot-aircraft-environment complex model is set up and a virtual flight testing method based on connection of MATLAB/Simulink and Flightgear is proposed. Special researches are conducted on the modeling of pilot manipulation stochastic parameters and manipulation in critical situation. Unfavorable flight factors of certain scenario are analyzed, and reliability modeling of impor- tant system is researched. A distribution function of small probability event and the theory on risk probability measurement are studied. Nonlinear function is used to depict the relationship between the cumulative probability and the extremum of the critical parameter. A synthetic evaluation model is set up, modified genetic algorithm （MGA） is applied to ascertaining the distribution parameter in the model, and a more reasonable result is obtained. A clause about vehicle control functions （VCFs） verification in MIL-HDBK-516B is selected as an example to validate the practicability of the method.

Envelope protection for aircraft encountering upset condition based on dynamic envelope enlargement

Upset condition encountered by an aircraft in flight could pose great threat to flight safety, which is of chief importance in civil aviation. The causal factors have the nonlinear and multiple characteristics, and as a result the conventional envelope protection system cannot successfully do with the condition. So dynamic envelope based on differential manifold theory, which can take more coupling factors into account, is proposed as a basis to design a novel envelope protection system. Then the relationship between the dynamic envelope and the control coefficient or pilot command is obtained, and the result shows that the dynamic envelope can be enlarged with the change of control coefficient. Furthermore, quantification of flight security is realized via defining relative distance between flight state and dynamic envelope, which can detect whether there is a risk for an aircraft in flight. Finally, an envelope protection system based on dynamic envelope enlargement is proposed on the basis. NASA＇s Generic Transport Model encountering hazard gust wind in climbing phase is taken as an example to verify the system＇s feasibility. The result shows that the system can give a better operation encountering upset condition and to a certain extent reduce the number of accidents or incidents.

Strategic Asset Allocation for China's Foreign Reserves:A Copula Approach

In this paper, we study strategic asset allocation for China＇s foreign reserves using a risk- based approach. Four aspects of the risk management are investigated： an investment universe, dependence structure, allocation strategies under risk minimization and trade-off between risks and returns. A regime-switching copula model is developed to investigate the dynamic dependence between assets. One regime emphasizes a short-term safe asset and the other regime emphasizes a long-term safe asset. The optimal allocation is derived following two strategies： risk minimization and trade-off between risks and returns in utility maximization with disappointment avoidance, lf the central bank focuses solely on risk minimization, the asymmetries in the asset return dependence encourage the flight to safety. However, if higher risks are allowed in exchange for higher returns, even the exchange is very conservative, and the asymmetries would discourage the flight to safety. Therefore, we suggest that China should mitigate its flight to safety after 2008 and increase holdings of short-term bank deposits, long-term treasury bonds and euro bonds.