Aircraft engine icing event avoidance and mitigation through real-time simulation and controls
AssigneeThe United States of America as represented by the Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
InventorsJoseph P. Veres, Philip C. Jorgenson
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A process for mitigating or proactively avoiding an aircraft engine icing event may include detecting ice crystals in the atmosphere using one or more sensors on board an aircraft in real time. The process may also include modulating one or more engine operating conditions to proactively change an ice accretion location, to avoid the occurrence of an icing event. The process may further include implementing one or more modulated engine operating conditions in engine controls software, hardware, or both.
Claims18
A process for mitigating or proactively avoiding an aircraft engine icing event, comprising:
- detecting an existence of ice crystals in an atmosphere, by one or more sensors on board an aircraft, in real time;
- when ice crystals in the atmosphere are detected:
- modulating one or more engine operating conditions to change an ice accretion location;
- and
- modulating, by a control system and real-time engine thermodynamic cycle model and compressor flow model, one or more operating parameters to proactively mitigate the risk of ice accretion such that no significant amount of ice accretion occurs for a 5 to 20 second duration at any specific location within a compression system;
- and
- implementing one or more modulated engine operating conditions in engine controls to proactively mitigate the occurrence of an aircraft engine icing event.
A process for mitigating or proactively avoiding an aircraft engine icing event, comprising:
- integrating one or more icing computational modules into engine control systems, wherein the integrating of the one or more icing computational modules into engine control systems comprises:
- detecting an existence of high altitude ice crystals in an atmosphere, by one or more sensors on board an aircraft, in real time, wherein the detecting of the existence of high altitude ice crystals in the atmosphere comprises determining, by an engine system and compressor flow analysis model, in real-time, if an engine is operating at a nominal performance for a given atmospheric condition and an engine throttle system;
- mitigating or proactively avoiding in real time effects of ice crystals through the engine control systems by modulating one or more engine operating conditions to change an ice accretion location, when ice crystals in the atmosphere are detected, and implementing one or more modulated engine operating conditions in engine controls.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.