Characteristic analysis of aircraft with asymmetric wing damage and incremental fault-tolerant control

To enhance the flight safety of aircraft with wing damage, this paper investigates the effect of asymmetric wing damage on aerodynamic and dynamic characteristics of aircraft and proposes an incremental fault-tolerant control method based on an improved predefined-time theory, thereby improving stability recovery and fault-tolerant performance. First, the effects of wing-tip truncation and perforation damage on aerodynamic performance are analyzed using CFD software. Second, based on the aerodynamic characteristics of damage effects, a six-degree-of-freedom nonlinear model of the aircraft with asymmetric wing damage is established. Three representative trim strategies are then investigated, and their applicability is discussed through case studies. Subsequently, the existing predefined-time control theory is improved to accelerate closed-loop system convergence and address the mismatch between theoretical convergence time and user-defined time. On this basis, an incremental trajectory fault-tolerant controller is developed for the damaged aircraft, and the stability and predefined-time convergence of the closed-loop system under wing damage are rigorously proven using Lyapunov theory. Finally, the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed incremental trajectory fault-tolerant control scheme are validated through both numerical simulations and real-time simulation experiments.