Coordinated Model Predictive Control of Aircraft Gas Turbine Engine with Simplified Electrical System Model

With the trends towards More Electric Aircraft and All Electric Aircraft, the electrical power requirements for aircraft have been steadily increasing, making the interactions between the electrical system and gas turbine engine significant and requiring advanced control strategies for safe and efficient operation of the aircraft. Thus, in this paper, a coordinated control strategy for a gas turbine engine, an advanced dual generator subsystem, and energy storage elements with a simplified electrical bus model, is developed to accommodate large transient thrust and electrical loads. A rate-based Model Predictive Control approach is utilized to track setpoints and ensure system constraints. The bus voltage behaviors are stabilized by imposing a power rate constraint without having additional states in the controller design. Energy storage elements assist the generators to improve system performance as well as the transient bus voltage behavior. The incorporation of energy storage elements provides the potential to extend system operation range for future more electric aircraft and all electric aircraft.