Electronic Rotor Speed Control for a Sustainable Aviation Fuel Pump Test Bench

To evaluate the combustion characteristics of sustainable aviation fuels on a research gas turbine engine, a separate test bench with a fuel pump has to be connected to the turbine. To keep the gas turbine unit connected with the pump unit and to operate the pump based on the required fuel the throughput must be determined. The pump test unit was not able to operate under static conditions since it only had an open-loop control. A closed-loop control had to be designed which operated based on a given RPM reference. A system identification was commenced on the pump unit, then a PID control was designed and implemented. All the identification and the controlling was tasked to a microcontroller. The relevant commands and given references were given to the controller via a computer connection.