Jose L. Pérez, Alvaro Esteban, Guillermo Pastor, Hector Climent
DOI Number: N/A
Conference number: IFASD-2019-123
Digitalization, big data, data analytics, machine learning… words very often listen but, is there anything real behind these buzzwords? Is there anything applicable to structural dynamic and aeroelasticity? This paper is aimed to show a real application of digitalization technology to dynamic loads. Limit loads are the ones used in the structural design of the aircraft and many times related with a probability of occurrence around 10−5 per flight hour. Nevertheless, given a dynamic loads scenario reflected in the Airworthiness Regulations (taxi, dynamic landing, discrete tuned gust, continuous turbulence,…) there is only a reduce set of aircraft parameters (total weight, fuel contents, flight point, flaps or airbrakes configuration, etc) that provides the maximum loads that in turn would be used as limit loads. This paper will show the methodology aimed to determine the probability of reaching limit loads in each one of the dots of the entire set of possible aircraft parameters (all weights, all fuel contents, all flight points, etc.) and not only “the critical” ones. If the limit loads are reached in a given boundary of the “space of possible aircraft parameters” where the probability of reaching limit loads is 10−5, then the probability of reaching limit loads inside that boundary will be lower than 10−5 (i.e. more remote than 10−5) and the probability of reaching limit loads outside that boundary will be larger than 10−5 (i.e. more frequent). The application of this methodology allows to determine accurately the associated risk in operation outside the guarantees of the Aircraft Flight Manual (AFM) and/or to fix the limits in the space of aircraft parameters that may allow operations outside that AFM guarantees. An example of application of this methodology would be Statistical Analysis of Dynamic Taxi Loads due to military operations in unpaved runways. For those airplanes regularly operating in unpaved surfaces, their AFM exhibits the maximum allowable roughness of the runway profile. The methodology shown in this paper would help in assessing what would be the limits in the space of aircraft parameters and/or the accurate probability of reaching limit loads when operating in unpaved surfaces with more severe roughness than the ones in the AFM. This option would be a clear extension of the capabilities of the aircraft that will benefit the customers of it.