Model-Based Design for Fuel System Development

In modern civil aircraft, the fuel system provides more functionality than simply keeping the engines fed. It is also used to provide structural integrity of the wings and fuselage, to protect the aircraft flight envelope with centre‐of‐gravity control, to provide cooling for the engines and hydraulic packs, and to improve aircraft efficiency by trimming the aircraft in flight. These extra functional requirements, together with a plethora of safety requirements, can lead to complexities within the design of the fuel control system. To address them, Airbus has employed Model‐Based Design, including the use of MATLAB^®, Simulink^®, Stateflow^®, and Simscape™. This presentation focuses on how system level simulation, comprising of controls models in Stateflow and hydraulics models in Simscape, is being used to support the Airbus Fuel Control System design. The advantages of Model‐Based Design to facilitate full validation and verification at the system and aircraft level are also discussed.