Development of a Simulation Environment to Support Aircraft Health Management Education

A simulation environment is developed at West Virginia University (WVU) to support current efforts for the integration into the curriculum of engineering aspects related to aircraft health management. The objective is to provide undergraduate and graduate aerospace engineering students with advanced knowledge and skills in the area of modeling, detection, evaluation, monitoring, and accommodation of abnormal aerospace systems operation within an experiential and active learning environment. A set of dedicated simulation tools is presented, which integrates PC-based simulation with the WVU 6-degrees-of-freedom motion-based flight simulator. Several types of failure of various aircraft sub-systems (actuators, sensors, structure, engine) as well as adverse atmospheric conditions and abnormal human pilot conditions are modeled and implemented. Parameter identification algorithms, failure detection schemes, and fault tolerant control laws are implemented for demonstration and analysis purposes. The use of the simulation environment is illustrated through a classroom simulation experiment designed to put into evidence the dynamic signature of aerodynamic control surfaces failures.