Modeling and simulation of a two-shaft gas turbine propulsion system containing a frictional plate-type clutch

摘要

A marine propulsion system is composed of several sub-systems that operate in a variety of energy fields. The propulsion power of a ship can be provided from a two-shaft gas turbine. In this article, the modeling of a two-shaft gas turbine and its associated sub-systems including gears, flexible couplings and clutch is considered. These components are connected in the form of a virtual marine propulsion system, which is based on the bond-graph approach. When a clutch is used in a propulsion system, discontinuities occur in the describing model, which leads to some challenging problems when performing computer simulations. The two main difficulties are the numerical stiffness and the variable model structure. In this research, the bond-graph method is adapted as the modeling framework in order to allow a constant system structure model that minimizes the stiffness problem. Next, simulation results of a two-shaft gas turbine are presented in the off-design condition and verified with experimental tests. These results demonstrate the acceptable accuracy of computer simulations. Also, the effects of clutch performance on the dynamics of the marine propulsion system are discussed.