Architecture of Distributed Control System for Gearbox-Free More Electric Turbofan Engine

Abstract

The article presents development of the more electric turbofan engine in distributed architecture with a design thrust in the range from 3 to 7.5 and from 7.5 to 30 kN for small and medium-sized unmanned aerial vehicles. The engine subsystems are considered as separate smart modules with a built-in control system, exchanging data via a digital channel with the central engine control and diagnostics unit. The key smart engine units are combined in the following subsystems: starter and turbine generators, oil pumps, actuator of guide vanes, fuel pumps, fuel metering unit, control and diagnostic unit. All pumps and guide vane actuator are electrically driven. Control and monitoring signals are transmitted via a digital bus. Functional and reliability analysis, technical configuration design of each subsystem are presented. Based on analysis of the architecture of distributed control system for gearbox-free more electric engine, different configurations of described subsystems are proposed.

Development of flow metering for electric aircraft oil pump

“…The electric aircraft oil pump system is very important to the reliability and health of the engine, and the aircraft oil pump is the power source of the engine thermal cycle [1]. With the continuous advancement of multi-electric aero-engine technology and the application of advanced technologies such as distributed and intelligent control, electric-driven aircraft oil pumps have become an important direction for the research of aircraft oil systems [2][3]. The electric aircraft oil pump is composed of a motor, a fuel pump and a controller [4], according to the aircraft oil flow demand of the FADEC，it adjusts the motor speed to achieve the goal of precise flow control.…”

Design of Power Supply for Distributed Aero-engine Intelligent Control System

“…How to design a suitable power topology is a difficult point in the design of distributed power supply. Due to the limitations of high-temperature electronics technology and decentralized control theory [13], the development of an engine-distributed control system will be a gradual process, that is, from a partially distributed architecture to a fully distributed control system architecture [14]. Based on the partially distributed control system architecture, this paper takes a certain type of aero-engine as the research object, designs the topology of the distributed power supply, and calculates the power load of distributed intelligent nodes.…”