• flight envelope protection
• model predictive control
• Parsifal
• PrandtlPlane

The subject of thepresent thesis is the development of a Flight envelope protection system module to deploy inside the core simulation environment of the software "PHALANX" developed entirely at TU Delft in order to provide the aircraft designer a tool to evaluate and control the near-stall behavior of a commercial transport aircraft in the early conceptual design phase.
A stall model, based on an empirically derived USAF DATCOM method is firstly implemented in order to allow a quick estimation of angle of attack for maximum lift and maximum wing Lift Coefficient with a prediction accuracy that pertains to a conceptual design level. The available aerodynamic data deriving from a low-order panel code indeed are limited to a narrow window of angles of attack, and has to be augmented in order to derive necessary aerodynamics characteristics for near stall accurate dynamic simulation.
The model automates the notorious Xfoil viscous airfoil analysis tool and performs an optimization analysis in order to automatically find the required aerodynamic characteristics.
A Model Predictive Control strategy is then proposed and deployed in order to protect the aircraft form crossing the safe boundaries of maximum angle of attack and maximum load factor, following both pilot sudden stick inputs and gust disturbances.
The model is tested on a first case study: the Fokker 100 whose aerodynamic data were provided by courtesy of Fokker.
A subsequent analysis is performed on a second case study: an innovative civil transport PrandtlPlane aircraft with the aim of investigating the usage of Direct Lift Control to assess potential advantages and disadvantages carried by this non-conventional control strategy in terms of effectiveness of the envelope protection system.