Control Technology Needs for Electrified Aircraft Propulsion Systems

Abstract

Electrified aircraft propulsion (EAP) systems hold potential for the reduction of aircraft fuel burn, emissions, and noise. Currently, NASA and other organizations are actively working to identify and mature technologies necessary to bring EAP designs to reality. This paper specifically focuses on the envisioned control technology challenges associated with EAP designs that include gas turbine technology. Topics discussed include analytical tools for the dynamic modeling and analysis of EAP systems, and control design strategies at the propulsion and component levels. This includes integrated supervisory control facilitating the coordinated operation of turbine and electrical components, control strategies that seek to minimize fuel consumption and lessen the challenges associated with thermal management, and dynamic control to ensure engine operability during system transients. These dynamic control strategies include innovative control approaches that either extract or supply power to engine shafts dependent upon operating phase, which may improve performance and reduced gas turbine engine weight. Finally, a discussion of control architecture design considerations to help alleviate the propulsion/aircraft integration and certification challenges associated with EAP systems is provided.

Integrated Power and Thermal Management Systems for Civil Aircraft: Review, Challenges, and Future Opportunities

“…Figure 2 shows a control architecture for EPA. The control for EPA is generally recognised as two levels: supervisory control and component control [46]. The EPA has a supervisory controller to manage the commands for the conventional and the electrified propulsion systems.…”

“…Therefore, the power management optimisation strategies are researched for the supervisory controller. Control architecture for EPA, where the green blocks represent the engine system, blue blocks represent the power management system, and the orange blocks represent the thermal management system (adapted from [46]).…”

“…where J = objective function, 𝑡 = time, 𝑡 = initial time, 𝑡 = end time, 𝑊𝑡 = fuel weight, and 𝑊 = fuel flow rate. Control architecture for EPA, where the green blocks represent the engine system, blue blocks represent the power management system, and the orange blocks represent the thermal management system (adapted from [46]).…”

Multi-Electric Aero Engine Control and Hardware-in-the-Loop Verification with Starter Generator Coordination

“…The electrification transformation in aviation is an unstoppable trend. Whether aircraft or aero engine, multi-electric or all-electric is poised to become possible [1]. The multielectric engines not only need to supply power for traditional more-electric systems but also for electric propulsion systems, which requires larger power output from the starter generator.…”

“…Qiu focuses solely on disturbance control from the perspective of perturbed auxiliary power unit states when studying power generation control for auxiliary power units, neglecting the dynamic characteristics of the generator, which could affect the disturbance control effectiveness of the control algorithm [10]. Simon emphasizes the need to comprehensively consider the dynamic coupling between the electrical system and aero engine in the study of multi-electric aero engine control [1]. He proposes an integrated control design method when researching the hybrid propulsion system of STARC-ABL [11] and verifies the advantages of integrated control design over the original decentralized control design in steady state and transient state simulations [12].…”