Dynamics-Based Loads Monitoring Algorithm for Onboard Commercial Aircraft Usage

The developed methodology aimed to overcome the disadvantages of data-driven methodologies and present a physics-based approach that is computationally light enough to be implemented onboard the available systems of an instrumented commercial aircraft. A time-domain simulation using a decoupled structural and simplified aerodynamic model of the aircraft is presented. The formulation of the problem is indirect to better exploit the sampling rate of the built-in, onboard available sensors. A simplification procedure allowing the development of a lightweight loads monitoring algorithm (LMA) based on the time-domain simulation is demonstrated. Finally, the validity of the results obtained is demonstrated by comparison with reference data. An available sensor that is highly sampled is the vertical acceleration of the aircraft measured near the center of gravity. This sensor is selected as the basis of the developed simulation regarding the computation of the dynamic loads. High-fidelity aeroelasticity models are used by the industry to calculate structural loads for different operating conditions.