ADL Version 1.10

Aircraft Dynamics Library 1.10 is part of Modelon's 2024.1 release.

New versions of Modelon libraries are sold and distributed directly from Modelon, as well as approved resellers.

Improvements

  • Blocks for calculating airspeeds from dynamic pressure

    Indicated airspeed and calibrated airspeed are calculated from compressible dynamic pressure (impact pressure), and equivalent airspeed from incompressible dynamic pressure. Both dynamic pressure signals are available on the dynamic state bus, incompressible is still named dynamicStateBus.Pd while the added compressible is named dynamicStateBus.qc.

  • Initialization with under-powered engines

    Added a block to assist with initialization when acceleration constraints is used by the solver to derive initial throttle. The default behavior aborts the simulation with a helpful error message if the constraints cannot be met. With a parameter, the simulation is allowed to continue as if the initial acceleration contraints were fulfilled, however the throttle is limited.

  • Tire compression limit

    Added a limit on tire compression that aborts the simulation when the tire is compressed more than its sidewall height.

  • Enhanced effective flow angle calculation in 2.5 DOF simulations

    The PseudoAlpha sensing block now calculates effective flow angle alpha by double integrating the elevator signal to more accurately reflect elevator-induced pitching moment physics. A new phase compensator has been introduced to counteract the added phase this cause in control loops. It is showcased in the CruiseClimb example. These refinements simplify the transition from 2.5 DOF to 3 DOF models, requiring none to minimal control tuning.

  • Changed calculation of distance

    The distance is now based on the groundspeed, the velocity projected on the ground. Previously the distance was the integrated aircraft body X velocity, which is valid if assuming level flight. Additionally, the dynamic state bus has been extended to include the groundspeed.

  • Specific energy and specific excess power

    Added calculation of instantaneous specific energy and excess power. These measurements can be useful for determining the specific excess power flight envelope.

  • Propeller map scaling

    Added a propeller model based on the map scaling algorithm by Giannakakis et al.

  • Landing gear mass

    Added point masses on landing gear linkages and shock struts. The added point masses have default mass zero so that they are not affecting any models that already used the updated parts.

Breaking changes

  • The aircraft summary record has new fields for the specific energy and specific excess power. No action is necessary if any of the aircraft templates Minimal or Simple are used. If another template is used, the above stated fields will be missing values. Use the template Simple as a suggestion on how to specify summary.h_e and summary.P_s.