High-level feasibility analysis of an electronic distributed control architecture for oil & gas turbomachinery

The paper addresses the design of Distributed Control Architectures (DCAs) for the control of complex turbomachinery systems such as gas and steam turbines for Oil&Gas and Avionics. While the use of DCAs is a strong reality in the automotive industry, in the Oil&Gas application fields DCAs are not yet widely used and a centralized control system is often adopted. This work presents a high-level modelling activity of the control system for Oil & Gas turbomachinery including a tool for the design space exploration, evaluation algorithms, cost metrics and performance indexes. The aim is the optimal system partitioning in the transition from a centralized to a distributed control architecture. As example case study the proposed approach is applied to the control system for a gas turbine produced and distributed by GE Oil & Gas - Nuovo Pignone.