Autonomous Attitude Reconstruction Analysis for Propulsion System with Typical Thrust Drop Fault

Abstract

The propulsion system is one of the important and vulnerable sub-systems in a strap-on launch vehicle. Among different failure modes, the thrust drop fault is the most common and remediable one. It degrades vehicle attitude tracking ability directly. To this end, this paper focuses on the design and application of attitude reconstruction problems with a thrust loss fault during the ascending flight phase. We firstly analyze the special failure modes and impacts on the propulsion system through a Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA). Then, six degrees of freedom dynamic and kinematic models are formulated, which are integrated into the Matlab/Simulink environment afterward. The above models’ validation is realized through numerical simulations with different fault severity. Simulation results show that the max attitude deviation is only 0.67° approximately in the pitch angle channel under normal conditions, and the flight attitude angle deviation is directly proportional to the thrust loss percentage when the thrust drop fault occurs. Based on the validated models, a practical reconfigurable ideal through adjusting the control allocation matrix is analyzed. Then, an automation redistribution mechanism based on the moment equivalent principle before and after the thrust drop is proposed to realize proportional allocation of virtual control command among the actuators. The effectiveness of the designed attitude reconstruction method is demonstrated through numerical simulations and comparison analysis under various fault scenarios. The results show that the rocket attitude can be quickly adjusted to the predetermined program angle within about 2.5 s after the shutdown failure of a single engine, and the flight speed and altitude can also reach the required value with another 17 s engine operation. Therefore, the designed control reconfiguration strategy can deal with the thrust loss fault with high practicability and can be applied to real-time FTC systems. Last but not least, conclusions and prospects are presented to inspire researchers with further exploration in this field.