Design and HIL-based verification of the fuel control unit for a gas turbine engine

Abstract

The correct operation of a gas turbine engine depends on the accurate and stable performance of fuel control system and its components such as fuel control unit. Fuel control unit is an electro-hydraulic actuator of fuel control system whose function is to supply, regulate and send the fuel to the engine according to the electronic control unit command. In this paper, a new fuel control unit has been developed based on the load sensing concept for a turboshaft gas turbine engine. In the designed fuel control unit, the fuel flow rate is controlled by adjusting the fuel pressure. A NARX model and ANFIS controller is employed to design the pressure controller. A hardware in the loop framework, comprising of hydraulic circuit, sensors, data acquisition card and computers, is developed to evaluate the performance of the fuel control unit alongside the real-time simulation of other component such as engine and electronic control unit. Moreover, the consumed power by the fuel control unit is evaluated and a considerable improvement is indicated compared to typical fuel control units.