Lyapunov Based Estimation of Flight Stability Boundary under Icing Conditions

Current fight boundary of the envelope protection in icing conditions is usually defined by the critical values of state parameters; however, such method does not take the interrelationship of each parameter and the effect of the external disturbance into consideration. This paper proposes constructing the stability boundary of the aircraft in icing conditions through analyzing the region of attraction (ROA) around the equilibrium point. Nonlinear icing effect model is proposed according to existing wind tunnel test results. On this basis, the iced polynomial short period model can be deduced further to obtain the stability boundary under icing conditions using ROA analysis. Simulation results for a series of icing severity demonstrate that, regardless of the icing severity, the boundary of the calculated ROA can be treated as an estimation of the stability boundary around an equilibrium point. The proposed methodology is believed to be a promising way for ROA analysis and stability boundary construction of the aircraft in icing conditions, and it will provide theoretical support for multiple boundary protection of icing tolerant flight.