General Electric Company

R Sheldon Carpenter

Manxue Lu

Guoxin Li

Emad Andarawis Andarawis

Harry Kirk Mathews, Jr

Sridhar Adibhatla

Samhita Dasgupta

Scott Douglas Waun

James Ryan Reepmeyer

William James Mailander

Brent Jerome Brunell

John Lawrence DeJager

David Anthony Moster

William L Gazzola

Simon Shlomo Lis

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 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 of tracking variable states of a gas turbine engine in transient conditions includes obtaining input data representative of rotor velocity and pressure ratio; calculating a reference transient scheduled trajectory based on the input data; calculating a speed reference transient scheduled trajectory based on the input data; calculating a feedforward variable based on the reference transient scheduled trajectory; obtaining a feedback control variable; and determining a control variable based on a combination of the feedforward variable and the feedback control variable.

Multivariable feedforward control

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

In one embodiment, a gas turbine engine control system includes an engine controller configured to control multiple parameters associated with operation of a gas turbine engine system. The gas turbine engine control system also includes multiple remote interface units communicatively coupled to the engine controller. The remote interface unit is configured to receive an input signal from the engine controller indicative of respective target values of at least one parameter, and the remote interface unit is configured to provide closed-loop control of the at least one parameter based on the input signal and feedback signals indicative of respective measured values of the at least one parameter.

Distributed gas turbine engine control system with remote interface units

A control system for a gas turbine engine receives a signal representative of a first target engine operating condition and also receives a signal representative of an actual engine condition. The system produces an error signal representative of the difference between the target signal and the actual engine condition signal. A gain means adjusts the gain of the error signal to be equal to the desired change in the controlled engine parameter. The output of the gain means is then coupled to an activator of the engine which controls the parameter.

Growing community of inventors

Hamilton, OH, United States of America

R Sheldon Carpenter