REAL-TIME MODELS OF EMAS SUPPORTING THE DEVELOPMENT OF A PHM SYSTEM

The ASTIB project (Development of Advanced Systems Technologies and hardware/software for the flight simulator and Iron Bird demonstrators for regional aircraft) aims to the design and realize a technological demonstrator, or Iron Bird, to test new key technologies toward the development of a new more-electric regional aircraft. Looking at flight control actuators, the new key technology is usually assessed as the replacement of the mature electro-hydraulic architecture with new electro-mechanical actuators (EMAs). Such transition, driven by environmental concerns and advantages in terms of system architecture and maintainability, is however hindered by safety issues, since EMAs are subject to single point of failure which can cause jamming and hence jeopardize the aircraft availability at a significantly higher rate than their hydraulic counterpart. In this context, PHM is perceived as a key element to widen the application of the electromechanical solution. A key role in towards the implementation and testing of a PHM scheme on the ASTIB iron bird is played by the simulation software employed on the rig itself, with particular reference to the real-time models employed through a software-in-the-loop approach to reproduce the macroscopic effect of the most significant failure modes without damaging the flight control actuators on the rig. This paper is divided into two major parts. At first the ASTIB project is introduced, highlighting its positioning and its novelty aspects. The ASTIB iron-bird is then presented, and the role of the real-time simulation models highlighted. The models are finally briefly introduced, along with a summary of the activities performed to make the simulation models suitable for real-time applications.