Instrumentation and control lab

5th Semester, Aerospace Engineering

Nonlinear model simulation of an aircraft elevon surface actuation system
1. 0 Functional model of the actuation system
The functional model an aircraft elevon surface actuation system using a linear
electrohydraulic actuator is shown in Fig.1. The hydraulic actuator is basically a piston-
cylinder mechanism. The magnitude and direction of pressurized hydraulic flow rate into
the actuator is controlled by a servo valve. The load dynamics is basically the inertia of
the control surfaces along with aerodynamic forces acting on the control surfaces. This
dynamics along with stiffness of actuator mounting brackets and hydraulic actuator fluid
stiffness leads to a resonant frequency called hydro mechanical resonance. The present
modelling assumes the control surface as a lumped inertia.
2.0 Nonlinear mathematical modelling
The nonlinear mathematical model of the actuation system can be represented as
in Fig. 2. The modelling equations of individual subsystems are given below.
2.1. Servo valve equations
The relation between the spool movement yv and the valve current of the servo
valve is represented as a second order dynamics,
KV  v
2
y v ( s)
 2 [1]
I v ( s) s 2 v  v s v 2

The values of Kv, v and v for the servo valve are given as
Kv = 4e-5 m/mA , v=150 Hz, v=1
2.2. Dynamics of actuator chamber
The control ports of the servo valve are connected to the forward and
return chambers of the actuator. When the spool valve moves to the positive direction,
fluid enters into the forward chamber and displaces the actuator piston in the positive
direction. The linear movement of the piston rod is converted into rotary motion by
means of mechanical linkages which in turn rotates the control surface about their
respective hinge axes. The body of the elevon actuator is mounted onto the aircraft frame.
The various dynamic elements involved in the actuator and the load dynamics are shown
in Fig 3. The supply and return flows through the servo valve derived in terms of load
flow and chamber pressures are given as follows.
Supply flow into the actuator chamber 1 (forward chamber) is,
V1 dP1
Qvs QL  [ 2]
e dt
Return flow from the actuator chamber 2 is,
V2 dP2
Qvr QL  [3]
e dt
where the actuator chamber volumes V1 and V2 are given by,
V1 Vo  Ap x A and V2 Vo  Ap x A

The first part of eqn’s (2) and (3) is due to the volumetric displacement of the actuator
piston and the second part is due to fluid compression / expansion in the respective
actuator chambers. In the present model, the fluid compression flow in the forward
actuator chamber is assumed to be equal to the fluid expansion flow in the return
chamber of actuator.
V1 dP1 V2  dP2  Vo dPL
i.e,    [ 4]
e dt e  dt  2e dt

where PL = P1-P2 is the load pressure. The above simplification leads to Qvs = Qvr in the
present model and can be represented by the control flow, Qv from servo valve as

follows:
Combining eqn’s (2) and (4) ,
Vo dPL
Qv QL  . [5]
2e dt
The control flow, Qv , through the servo valve depends on the load pressure PL and the
spool displacement y v . It is given by the orifice type flow equation,

Qv  K fn .y v . Ps PL .sign Ps PL  [6]

where  sign( y v )
However it is extremely difficult to realize servo valve with such ideal
characteristics. There will be finite radial clearance between servo valve spool land and
sleeve and also there will be either underlap or overlap for the orifice opening. Normally
some overlap will be kept for the orifice opening to reduce the null leakage of servo
valve. Assuming the radial clearance as Cr and the overlap between spool land and the
orifice opening in the sleeve as , the effective length of servo valve orifice opening for a
spool displacement of y v can be approximated by,

   yv
. 

xv  y v  1e Cr   .sign( y v ) [ 7]
 
 
where  is a constant. This relation can be plotted for various values of  and Cr as
shown in Fig. 4. Combining eqn’s (2), (5), (6) and (7)
    yv
 
 . sign( y v )  PS PL .sign PS PL  Vo .dPL
.
QL  Kfn. y v   1e Cr  [8]
    2e dt
   
Then the actuator piston velocity can be derived from the load flow QL as,
QL
x A  [ 9]
AP
In the present model, the force developed by the actuator is derived in an indirect way.
Assuming that the actuator force FA is available, the control surface deflection is
computed using the load dynamics equation.
J cs d 2 cs Bcs d cs dx
i.e, 2
  FA  FD  Ba A  Fr  x A  [10]
lm dt lm dt dt
where Fr is the stiction / coloumb friction force and FD is the total disturbance force on
the control surface. Here, the actuator displacement x A is the sum of equivalent control
surface forward displacement xcs  cs .lm and the backward displacement of actuator
mounting bracket, xb
i.e, x A  xb  x cs [11]
Actually, xb , includes all mechanical flexible elements in cascade with the
actuator on either side. Assuming Kl as the equivalent stiffness of such elements which
will be called as the actuator mounting bracket stiffness, the actuator force can be derived
as
FA  Kl .xb  Kl  x A lm. cs  [12]
 Combining eqn’s (10) and (12), one gets a feedback loop with x A and FD as
inputs and  cs and FA as outputs which can be easily integrated with the actuator
dynamics to complete the system model.
3.0 Linear mathematical model for small signal analysis
The linear mathematical model of elevon actuation system is shown in
Fig. 5. This is obtained by linearizing the nonlinear model at the required operating
point. The major nonlinearity to be considered for linearization is the servo valve flow-
pressure equations. The servo valve nonlinearity can be linearized as given below.
QV  Kq  yV  KC PL [13]

where all the  ' s are small signal perturbations from the operating point. The coefficients
Kq and KC are given by

QV
Kq   yV 0 , PL 0   Kfn. Ps  PLo [14]
yV

QV K .y
KC   yV 0 , PL 0  fn V 0 [15]
PL 2 PS  PL 0

The values of Kq and Kc are functions of the operating points yvo and PLo. The
typical nominal operating condition is selected as the case in which the actuator
command is with 5% amplitude at the specified –90o bandwidth frequency and with
specified steady aero load τd acting on the hinge point. The values of yvo and PLo can be
derived as follows.
2 yv max d
yVo  , PL 0  [16]
 (lm  Ap)
where yvmax is the peak value of the servo valve displacement at the –90o phase
bandwidth frequency for 5% command amplitude, τd is the disturbance torque acting on
the control surface about the hinge axis, lm is the lever arm length and Ap is the area of
the cross section of the piston.
Using eqn(16), (14) and (15) ,the operating points and the valve coefficients can
be calculated as, yvo = 1.1301*10-4 m and PLo = 9.278*106 N/m2 , K qe  0.8207 m 2 / sec ,

and K ce  3.9211  10 12 m 3 / sec/ Pa .

4.0 Servo analysis and design

4.1 Open loop plant transfer function

The linear transfer function model is used for servo analysis and compensator
design. The general structure of the open loop transfer function is given as,
K v . K q . v K p d1
2 2

Gop ( s)  KA
    Gp [37]
s 2  2 v  v s   v s 2  2 d 1 d 1 s   d 1
2 2 
Servo amplifier gain      Hydraulicactuator / load / structure
Spool valve dynamics LVDT sensorand de mod ulator

where Gp is the open loop transfer function between the flow rate into the actuator and
actuator deflection as shown in Fig. 5. The actuation system use LVDT as position sensor
and the scale factor Kp of processing electronics is adjusted to give 10 V output for the
maximum deflection of the control surface. A second order roll off filter of parameters
d1=70 Hz and d1=0.707 is used for rejecting excitation frequency components from the
demodulated signal output. The parameter values of the linear model are substituted from
Table.1 and the open loop transfer function is computed as given below:
Gpe(s) =
V f ( s) 29.159 6959836
  2 
Vc ( s ) ( s  1884.95s  888264.4) ( s  888.44 s  394784)
2
[18]
5623.4  (1.3s 2  31.368s  75690)
s (3.37  10  4 s 3  1.501s 2  67.85s  77404.66)
4.2 Compensator design
The general compensator structure chosen for the actuation systems is given
below,

 Ki    ff   s 2 n n s n 
2 2
Gc ( s) K f  1     [19]
  s ff   s 2 2 d  n s n 2 
s    
PI ROLL OFF NOTCH

The compensator consists of a PI controller, first order roll off filter and a
notch filter. Notch filter is provided at the hydromechanical resonance frequency to
attenuate control-structure interactions. As there is a chance for the variation of hydro
mechanical resonance frequency under aerodynamic loading, wider notch filter is
designed. PI controller is selected for two purposes. It ensures zero steady state error of
the servo loop in the presence of finite overlap in servo valve. In addition to this, PI
controller offers maximum dynamic gain within the system passband to counteract
aerodynamic distribution loads. As the hydraulic actuation system is inherently type I, it
can overcome steady disturbance loads even with simple cascade gain compensator. The
cascade PI controller makes the servo loop type II so that it can overcome ramp type
disturbances also with zero steady state error. The zero frequency of PI controller is
selected at the maximum possible value under the constraint of the required phase margin
at the gain cross over frequency. The compensator parameters are selected to meet the
closed loop servo specifications based on the open loop plant transfer function as well as
non linear model simulation study. A first order roll off filter with 100 Hz bandwidth is
used in all actuation systems to attenuate high frequency signals. This will avoid higher
modes of control-structure interactions as well as suppress high frequency noise.
The hydromechanical resonance frequency of elevon actuation system is
36.12 Hz. Hence the notch filter frequency is selected as ωn = 2π*36.12 rad/sec. As there
is a wide separation between –3dB bandwidth and hydromechanical resonance, a wider
notch filter can be accommodated which will provide adequate robustness against the
variation of resonance frequency. Hence the damping factors of notch are selected as ζn =
0.05 and ζd = 0.75. The maximum possible value of zero frequency of PI controller under
the constraints of –3dB and –90o bandwidth requirement is found to be 4 rad/sec. The
final compensator thus designed is given below,

 4  628  s  22.69s  51506 

2
Gcf ( s )  7.8231    2  [20]
 s  s  628  s  340.4 s  51506 

The designed compensator is implemented in the nonlinear mathematical model

and the compensator forward gain is tuned to meet the required specification. The
compensator thus obtained through tuning is given below.

 4  628  s 2  22.69s  51506 

Gcf ( s )  6.631     [21]
 s  s  628  s 2  340.4 s  51506 

Table:1 Parameter values of various actuation loops

Description Numerical
Symbol Unit
Value
Area of cross section of
Ap m2 20.44*10-4
piston
Control surface viscous Bcs N-m / 31.37
damping (rad/sec)
Viscous damping N/
Ba 20000
coefficient of actuator (m/sec)
Coloumb friction /
stiction reflected at the CE N 1320
actuator side
Servo valve radial
clearance Cr m 0.5*10-6
Servo valve current
limit Iv_max mA 10
Moment of inertia of
control surface Jcs kg-m2 1.3
Servo amplifier gain KA mA/V 1
Flow pressure coeffici- m3/sec/
ent of servo valve KC Pa 3.92*10-12
Servo valve flow gain m3/sec/ 2.386*10-4
parameter Kfn sqrt(N)
PI Compensator gain Kf 6.63
PI compensator gain Ki 4
Actuator mounting
structure stiffness Kl N/m 10*106
Position sensor
(LVDT) scale factor KP V/rad 17.629
Linear equivalent flow
gain of servo valve. Kq m2/sec 0.8207
Spool displacement se-
nsitivity of servo valve Kv m/mA 4*10-5
Actuator lever arm
Lm m 0.087
length
Stroke length of
Ls m 52*10-3
actuator
Hydraulic supply Pa
Ps 2.11*107
pressure (N/m2)
Maximum Control thcs_
rad 32.5*pi/180
surface deflection max
Half volume of
Vo m3 1.063*10-4
actuator
Effective bulk modulus Pa
e 9.81*108
of hydraulic oil (N/m2)
Servo valve overlap  m 0.5*10-6
Overlap parameter  m 0.5*10-6
Demodulator d1 rad/sec 2*pi*100
frequency
Roll off filter
ff rad/sec 2*pi*100
frequency
Notch frequency n rad/sec 2*pi*36.12
Natural frequency of
v rad/sec 2*pi*150
servo valve
Demodulator damping
d1 ratio 0.707
factor
Denominator damping
d ratio 0.75
factor of notch
Numerator damping
n ratio 0.05
factor of notch
Damping factor of
v ratio 1
servo valve spool
Aero dynamic load
torque acting on the d N-m 1650
control surface
Auxilary variables used  rad/sec 2*pi*150
for numerical
simulation 1 ratio 0.3

List of variables - Table 2

Symbol Parameter description

FA Actuator output force
PL Load pressure
QC Fluid compressibility flow
QL Load flow rate
Control flow from servo
Qv valve
Half volume of actuator
Vo chamber.
xV Spool valve displacement
xA Actuator displacement
cs Control surface deflection
Mounting structure
s deflection
 Hydraulic To other
pressure Load force
actuators
supply feedback
Piston
(HPU) Aero load
PL Cross section
Actuator PS
Control
Command Control Surface
Servo Hydraulic xA xs
Actuator cs deflection
+- Servo Servo +- mounting Surface
Compensator amplifier valve actuator FA load
xcs bracket
Actuator cylinder. dynamics
position
feedback
Reservoir Actuator
moment
Equivalent arm
Control
Surface
displacement
Position sensor
dynamics

Fig.1 Functional modelling of Elevon actuation system

 Servo valve spool
PR PS PR

Q2 Q1 Q4 Q3

Qvs Qvr

Hinge point

lm cs
Jcs,Bcs
`
V2,P2 Kl2 xcs
V1,P1

Kl1
Actuator mounting
structure

Fig 3. Dynamics of actuator chamber and load

Nonlinear characteristics of spool valve

-6
5.0x10
All values are given in 'm'

-6
2.5x10
-6 -6 -6
Cr = 1 * 10 ,  = 0.5 * 10 ,  = 0.5*10
Orifice opening (x'v)

-6 -6 -6
Cr = 0.5 * 10 ,  = 0.5 * 10 ,  = 1*10
0
-6 -6 -6
Cr = 0.5 * 10 ,  = 0.5 * 10 ,  = 0.5*10

-6
-2.5x10

-6
-5.0x10
-5.0x10
-6
-2.5x10
-6 0 2.5x10
-6
5.0x10
-6

Spool displacem ent (xv)

Fig.4
5 .0 Results to be obtained
1) Generate the frequency response of uncompensated linear system open loop
transfer function Gpe(s).
2) Generate the frequency response of linear compensated open loop transfer
function and closed loop transfer function and check whether the –3dB B.W.
is 6.7 Hz and the –90o B.W. is 6.6 Hz for the linear model. Find the gain cross
over frequency, phase crossover frequency, phase margin and gain margin.
3) Compare the step and frequency response of linear model with step and
frequency response of nonlinear model for a command amplitude of 1.5 deg
( i.e. 5% of full scale deflection).
4) Find the step and frequency response of the nonlinear model and fill up the
following tables:
a) Step response of nonlinear model
Step Command Rise time Peak Overshoot Settling time (2%)
Amplitude
5%
10%
50%
100% (30 deg)

b) Frequency response of nonlinear model

Sinusoidal -3 dB Bandwidth -90 deg bandwidth
Command
Amplitude
5%
10%
50%
100% (30 deg)