General Electric Company

Manxue Lu

R Sheldon Carpenter

Sheldon Carpenter

James Ryan Reepmeyer

Jeffrey Anthony Hamel

William James Mailander

Thomas Charles Swager

Mitchell Donald Smith

Guoxin Li

David Anthony Moster

John Lawrence DeJager

Jon Tomas Zumberge

Daniel Lee Immel

John Lawrence Dejager

An integrated system and methods therefore are provided. An integrated system has individual power and/or thermal systems and a coordinated control system. The coordinated control system receives mission demands and priorities from an upstream system. The coordinated control system also receives a status and a prediction from each individual system, such as an individual system's operating mode status and its capability margin. The coordinated control system performs a conflict of interest check and generates a relative status for each individual system based on the status and predictions associated with the individual systems. The coordinated control system determines an operating mode and an allowed demand for each individual system based on the relative statuses and the mission demands and priorities. The coordinated control system outputs the operating modes to the individual systems and maps the allowed demands to individual system demands. The individual system demands are output to the individual systems.

Power and thermal management and coordinated control of an integrated system

A distributed control system may include a main processing unit, a distributed control module, and a controllable component. The distributed control module may be configured to receive a nominal command reference from the main processing unit, determine a series of cumulating command references based at least in part on the nominal command reference; and output a series of cumulating control commands to the controllable component. The series of cumulating control commands may be based at least in part on the series of cumulating command references.

Distributed control modules with cumulating command references

A fuel metering system for a combustion section of a turbo machine is provided. The turbo machine includes a main fuel line configured to provide a flow of fuel and a zone fuel line split from the main fuel line through which at least a portion of the flow of fuel is provided. A fuel valve is disposed at the zone fuel line and is configured to obtain and receive a present fuel valve area value and a present valve position value. A first pressure sensor is disposed upstream of the fuel valve, in which the first pressure sensor is configured to obtain a first pressure value. A second pressure sensor is disposed downstream of the fuel valve, in which the second pressure sensor is configured to obtain a second pressure value. A flow meter is disposed downstream of the fuel valve. A controller is configured to perform operations, in which the operations include determining a demanded fuel valve actuator position based at least on an estimated fuel valve actuator position and a demanded fuel flow; comparing the demanded fuel flow and a present fuel flow; determining an actual fuel valve actuator position based at least on the demanded fuel valve actuator position and the compared demanded fuel flow and present fuel flow; and generating an valve effective area at the fuel valve based at least on the actual fuel valve actuator position.

Fuel system for heat engine

A distributed control system having at least a distributed control module is disclosed. The distributed control module may be configured to determine a fault state associated with a control loop using a built-in test module. The built-in test module may be incorporated into the distributed control module. The fault state may include no faults, a communication fault, a sensor operation fault, or a controllable component fault. The distributed control module may be configured to transmit a closed-loop control command from the distributed control module to a controllable component when the fault state comprises no faults, or transmit an augmented control command from the distributed control module to the controllable component when the fault state comprises a communication fault or a sensor operation fault, or transmit a disconnect control command from the distributed control module to a controllable component when the fault state comprises a controllable component fault.

Distributed control modules with built-in tests and control-preserving fault responses

A method and system for controlling a plant having a plurality of actuators, a plurality of inputs corresponding to the operational state of the actuators and plurality of outputs corresponding to an operating condition of the plant according to a model-based control and a plant model. The plant model is on-line reconfigured and the model-based control is built such that the model-based control adapts to the reconfigured plant model.

Method and system of adaptive model-based control for multiple-input multiple-output plants

A method and control system for an aircraft engine comprising a gas turbine driving a fan propeller with a mechanical gear-train and a dedicated pitch change mechanism for the fan propeller includes a fuel flow signal input; a pitch change mechanism signal input; a controlled plant for relating a pitch change mechanism pitch angle (BetaP) and a fuel flow (Wf) to at least two controlled outputs and a set of constraints. A decoupling control decoupling the controlled plant and/or the constraints into two separate single-input single-output (SISO) control loops for the first and second controlled outputs and a decoupling control decoupling the constraints from the decoupled controlled outputs and the constraints from one another provide gas turbine and fan propeller coordinate control while coordinately controlling constraints and outputs. A feedforward control can compensate the load change effect on engine speed and fan propeller rotor speed control.

Method and system for model based control for variable pitch fan engines and turbo-shaft, turbo-propeller engines

A thrust scheduling method for a gas turbine engine that includes a plurality of blades having a variable pitch beta angle is provided. The method can include receiving into a control system at least one condition input from a respective sensor; receiving into a control system a low pressure shaft speed from a low pressure shaft speed sensor; receiving a control command from a full authority digital engine control (FADEC) in the control system; generating a low pressure shaft speed base reference from a first schedule logic in the control system based upon the at least one condition input received and the control command received; generating a beta angle base reference from a second schedule logic from the at least one condition input received, the low pressure shaft speed, and the control command received; and supplying the low pressure shaft speed base reference and the beta angle base reference to an engine control system, wherein the engine control system adjusts at least the pitch angle of the plurality of fan blades or a fuel flow to the engine.

Thrust scheduling method for variable pitch fan engines and turbo-shaft, turbo-propeller engines

A method and apparatus for multiple variable control of a physical plant with high dimension multiple constraints, includes: mathematically decoupling primary controlled outputs of a controlled physical plant from one another and shaping the pseudo inputs/controlled outputs desired plant dynamics; tracking primary control references and providing pseudo inputs generated by desired primary output tracking for selection; mathematically decoupling constraints from one another; mathematically decoupling constraints from non-traded off primary controlled outputs of the controlled physical plant; shaping the pseudo inputs/constraint outputs desired plant dynamics; tracking constraint control limits; providing pseudo inputs generated by desired constraint output tracking for selection; selecting the most limiting constraints and providing the smooth pseudo inputs for the decoupled primary control; and controlling the physical plant using the decoupled non-traded off primary controlled outputs and the decoupled selected most limiting constraints.

Methods and apparatuses for advanced multiple variable control with high dimension multiple constraints

Simple, robust and systematic solutions are provided for controlling counter-rotating open-rotor (CROR) gas turbine engines. The solutions mathematically decouple the two counter rotating rotors of a CROR engine by model-based dynamic inversion, which allows application of single-input-single-output (SISO) control concepts. The current solutions allow fuel flow to be treated as a known disturbance and rejected from the rotor speeds control. Furthermore, the current control solutions allow a simple and well-coordinated speed phase synchronizing among the four rotors on a two-engine vehicle.

Methods and apparatuses for model based control for counter-rotating open-rotor gas turbine engine

A method and apparatus for providing large transient identification for advanced control with multiple constraints. A request to change a current operating condition of a controlled plant is detected. A value of a control constraint corresponding to the request to change the current operating condition of the controlled plant is determined. A magnitude of a transient error corresponding to the request relative to the value of the control constraint is determined and the current operating condition of the controlled plant is adjusted based on the determined magnitude of the transient error.

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Swampscott, MA, United States of America

Manxue Lu