Improved Turbine Engine Performance, Responsiveness, and Prognostics Using Model-Based Control in a Hardware-in-the-Loop Simulation

Abstract

Maintaining continuous performance in the event of failures from aircraft propulsion engines is critical for mission readiness, mission completion, and maintenance cost. In this paper, a Model-Based Control (MBC) approach was developed and demonstrated for a turbine engine application that significantly improved the performance and fault recovery capability of the engine system. In addition, model-based health management techniques were demonstrated and showed encouraging results towards a real-time implementation. A Full Authority Digital Engine Controller (FADEC) with model-based control was successfully integrated with the high performance Turbine Engine Dynamic Simulator (TEDS). This environment was composed of a complete high fidelity Hardware-In- the- Loop (HIL) simulation of an engine with MBC system that provided both pre-flight and post-flight data results for evaluation. This paper will document and discuss key technologies demonstrated with the hardware in the loop simulation, which are: enhanced fault detection, real-time fault accommodation, model optimization for real-time execution, and integration of the control estimator with the high fidelity thermodynamic engine model. The results of this effort show a model-based controller can significantly improve engine transient response and performance.