Progress and New Challenges in Electronics and Digital Engine Control

摘要

Engine control systems, benefiting from continual progress in electronics, havebecome increasingly powerful and reliable while their cost and weight have decreased. Analog technology has gradually been replaced by digital technology, leading to gains in performance and reductions in cost while yielding implementations that are simpler and more uniform. Current massively redundant systems (FADEC) are evolving toward modular redundancy (multiprocessors implementing the parallelism of engine control functions), allowing previously hard-wired functions to be performed by software, thereby increasing flexibility for the designers. However, development difficulties have been compounded by the increasing number of functions performed, and this has not been entirely compensated for by Computer Aided Design and Computer Aided Software Engineering tools. The functional and operational complexity will continue to increase in the future, adding to design difficulties. A new approach appears necessary, whereby the functions are distributed among smart subsystems interconnected by fiber-optic links. This requires progress on standardization and high-temperature electronics.