Method for Helicopter Turboshaft Engines Controlling Energy Characteristics Through Regulating Free Turbine Rotor Speed and Fuel Consumption Based on Neural Networks

Abstract

This research is devoted to the development of a method for helicopter turboshaft engine energy characteristics control by regulating the free turbine rotor speed and fuel consumption using neural network technologies. A mathematical model was created that links the main rotor and free turbine rotor speed parameters, based on which a relation with the engine output power was established. In this research, a differential equation was obtained that links fuel consumption, output power, and rotor speed, which makes it possible to monitor engine dynamics in various operating modes. A fuel consumption controller was developed based on a neuro-fuzzy network that processes input data, including the desired and current rotor speed, which allows real-time adjustments to improve the operational efficiency. In the research, based on the flight data analysis obtained during the Mi-8MTV helicopter with a TV3-117 turboshaft engine flight test, improved signal processing quality was obtained due to time sampling and adaptive quantisation methods (this is confirmed by assessing the homogeneity and representativeness of the training and test datasets). A comparative analysis of the developed and traditional controllers showed that the neuro-fuzzy network use reduces the transient fuel consumption process time by 8.92% while increasing the accuracy and F1 score by 18.28% and 21.32%, respectively.