Nonlinear Model Predictive Control for the Power Management in Hybrid Distributed Electric Aircraft: Considering Aerodynamics– Propulsion Coupling Effects

Hybrid distributed electric propulsion (HDEP) aircraft has potential advantages of long-range, low pollutant emission, and high efficiency, thereby promising great application prospects. However, efficient operation of HDEP aircraft critically depends on the rational power management of the hybrid propulsion system. Focusing on this issue, this article proposes a novel nonlinear model predictive control (NMPC)-based power management strategy, which optimizes the power allocation at both supply and demand sides of the hybrid propulsion system. By doing so, it minimizes the fuel consumption while completing the specified flight mission. The salient feature of the proposed strategy is that by comprehensively considering the flight dynamics together with the aerodynamics-propulsion coupling effects induced by multiple electric propulsors, it achieves the objective of optimal power management from an aerodynamic point of view. Considering the nonlinear nature of the aircraft flight dynamics and the aerodynamics-propulsion coupling effect, the NMPC prediction model is approximated using the full discretization technique. In this way, the corresponding optimization problem can be solved efficiently. Simulation results demonstrate the performance and effectiveness of the proposed strategy by comparing with rule-based strategy and dynamic programming (DP) strategy.