Improvements in fuel system performance for large commercial aircrafts by

continuous control of the centre of gravity position and fault tolerant algorithms

J.M. Girón-Sierra, J.F. Jiménez, C. C. Insaurrralde, M. A. Seminario, B.

Higham(1), R. A. Melville(1)

Dep. Arquitectura de Computadores y Automática, U. Complutense de Madrid

Av. Complutense S/N, 28040 Madrid, Spain

gironsi@dacya.ucm.es
(1)
Fuel Systems Engineer – Research, Airbus UK

New Filton House, Filton, Bristol BS99 7AR, United Kingdom

1. Introduction

Some aircrafts, especially those intended to perform large intercontinental flights,

can be furnished with a fuel tank (trim tank) close to the trimmable horizontal

stabiliser which helps to preserve aircraft stability while saves fuel.

The idea is to reduce the negative incidence angle at which the horizontal

stabiliser is normally trimmed during flight to maintain aircraft stability, shifting

backwards the aircraft centre of gravity by means of the extra fuel located in such

tank. In this way, the horizontal stabiliser negative incidence is reduced,

diminishing the trim drag and, consequently, the fuel consumption.

Each aircraft, type has a set of boundary conditions within the Centre of gravity

position must kept along the flight to assure aircraft stability. The fuel avionics

constantly calculates the optimum Centre of gravity for the particular aircraft
mass and fuel distribution as the aircraft gets lighter with fuel burn and the fuel is

moved between the tanks. As fuel is consumed from the wings and the CG moves

aft, it becomes necessary to maintain the optimum CG by moving fuel forwards

from the trim tank when required. There is normally a safety margin kept between

the aft limit and the CG target to protect against any loading inaccuracies or an

error in the zero fuel CG programmed into the fuel control system before flight.

Currently, the forward transfer rate is sized by the need to move fuel forwards

quickly in time for landing in case the trim tank is full, because landing with fuel

in the tail may damage the airframe. This rate is too fast for most cases during

cruise which only require a gradual transfer and so the conventional valve, which

controls the rate to a from the trim tank of current aircrafts with CG control,

cycles open and closed periodically. This means the CG position zig-zags down

the CG aft boundary and is never continuously at the optimum.

This paper explores the choice of employ a positional control valve and a simple

control loop to set continuously the flowrate according to the situation. The CG

would then track its optimum position, further improving fuel consumption.

A model for the aircraft fuel system has been developed to study the performance

of the new valve during different flight situations.

2. Aircraft description

The aircraft employed is a hypothetical one designed to fulfil the needs of the

present study and is not based on any particular actual aircraft model.

Figure 1 shows and schematic top view of the aircraft dimensions.

It has been designed as a two jet engine aircraft with six fuel tanks in the wings

(three in each one) and one more tank in the tail.

To maintain a coherent notation throughout the paper, the tanks have been

labelled as follows:

The wing tanks close to the fuselage have been labelled as feed tanks; right feed

tank for the right wing one and left feed tank for the left wing one. These tanks

feed the engines and each one can hold 22960 kg of fuel when the tank is

completely full.

The tanks located in the middle of the wing are denoted as mid tanks. The same

notation applied to distinguish between both feed winds is employed in this case.

These tanks have a maximum fuel capacity of 14000 kg each one.

The tanks located at the end of the wings have been named outer tanks. The

maximum capacity is this case is 4000 kg each one.

The last tank, located in the trimmable stabiliser has been denoted trim tank. Its

full capacity is 10000 kg of fuel.

Figure 2 Shows a detailed description of the tanks, pipes, pumps and valves

involved in the aircraft fuel system.

 Collector Collector
1 Cell 1 Cell 2 2
P2 P3
P1 P4
N

K L

J M
TP
E TP
1 D 2

G
tank
Vent

tank
Vent
E

A Left Feed Right Feed F

Tank Tank
Left Mid Tank Right Mid
Tank
Left Outer Right Outer
Tank Tank

TP TP
4 3 O
tank
Vent

Trim Tank
 Collector Collector
Cell 1 Cell 2
1 2
P2 P3
P1 P4
N

K L

J M
TP CC TP
1 D 2

G
B E
Vent tank

Vent tank
A Left Feed Right Feed
Tank Tank F
Left Mid Right Mid
Left Outer Tank Tank Right Outer
Tank Tank

TP TP
4 3 O
Vent tank

Trim Tank
 30

20

10

0
m

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-20

-30
-10 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
m