Effects of partial fuel pump failure on center of gravity control for high-speed aircraft

Aircraft center of gravity control is an important technology to gain potential performance benefits. In-flight center of gravity control is usually based on a fuel transfer system which enables fuel to be transferred among fuselage fuel tanks and then adjust aircraft center of gravity. The aim of this article is to systematically investigate the influences of partial fuel pump failures on the CG control performance for the high-speed aircraft. As the basis, modeling process of center of gravity varying with fuel transfer is put forward and the sliding model based control law for center of gravity is presented in detail. Then the detailed simulation analysis of possible failures effects on center of gravity tracking performance for the high-speed aircraft is carried out, including different one or two fuel pump failures. Finally, the corresponding emergency strategies for the aircraft center of gravity control system are proposed.