关键词: 数字孪生, 飞行器舵回路, 健康管理, 电动舵机, 建模与仿真, 孪生应用

Abstract: To address the challenges of limited and incomplete measurable data in fault detection, diagnosis, and prediction for long-endurance reusable vehicle’s rudder-loop-system, this study introduces the concept of digital twins into the health management of rudder loops. First, a digital twin framework for the rudder-loop-system is proposed. Through the use of AMESim and FLUENT, precise modeling of the rudder loop is conducted, covering mechanical, electrical, control, and flight dynamic load aspects. The integration of the three-phase electromechanical control model and the real-time flight dynamic load model is also achieved. Subsequently, to ensure the digital twin of the rudder loop remains consistent with the physical entity under various operating conditions, such as normal opera-tion, rudder surface damage, and floating faults, a virtual-physical consistency perception method and a dynamic adjustment mechanism for the digital twin are developed. These enable the rudder loop digital twin to maintain virtual-physical consistency by continuously tracking physical changes through online fault perception and adaptive adjustments. Finally, experimental results demonstrate that under both normal and fault conditions, the digital twin maintains a high level of virtual-physical consistency with the physical entity, with multiple time-domain metrics such as current and rudder angle errors, variances, and peak-to-peak values aligning in both magnitude and trend. Moreover, the extended data dimensions provided by the digital twin offer more comprehensive data support for the health management of rudder loops.

Key words: Digital twin, Aircraft’s rudder-loop-system, Health management, Electric rudders, Modelling and simulation, Digital twin’s applications