Development of Distributed Control Systems for Aircraft Turbofan Engines

摘要

Decentralized distributed engine control (DEC) enables a control architecture to support the standards envisioned for the next generation of aircraft propulsion control systems. DEC seeks to advance current aircraft control systems through the use of a digital communication network incorporating a range of smart components designed to improve engine efficiency, performance, and life cycle costs. Communication constraints like limited bandwidth, time delays, and packet dropouts can limit performance of DEC, so good design prioritizes robustness enough to meet these constraints and handle the failures and delays of these networks. Currently, however, there is no good way to model the effects of the distributed control system, and finding a method to simulate these effects has been a matter of great interest for AFRL, NASA, and original engine manufacturers (OEMs). This paper explains a novel method for modeling distributed control, incorporating a thermodynamic engine model and a series of signal delays to simulate the communication constraints involved with the use of a network architecture. To demonstrate the implementation of this novel control organization with current aircraft propulsion systems, the controllers of thermodynamic turbofan engine models, provided by NASA, have been designed and adjusted to include concepts of a distributed control architecture to provide data regarding the control capability and engine performance of these models in response to certain operating conditions.