Failure Detection System Design for Asymmetric Elevator Failures in the F-16 Aircraft

Abstract

In today's aerospace industry, fault tolerant control approach is widely used. In this control approach, it is very important to determine the occurrence of a failure accurately. In this study, a failure detection system is proposed to detect asymmetric control surface failures that may occur in the elevator of the F-16 aircraft. The proposed detection system is verified by nonlinear flight simulations involving common failure scenarios, namely freezing, floating and loss of effectiveness.