Gas turbine engine flow control
AssigneeROLLS-ROYCE plc
InventorsCerith Davies, Marko Bacic
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method of controlling a gas turbine engine including receiving an instantaneous thrust demand for current operation of the engine, determining the inlet flow rate and/or the pressure ratio within the compressor of the engine and determining whether the inlet flow rate and/or the pressure ratio match the working line for the compressor. The angle of one or more vane of the compressor is adjusted according to a closed control loop if the inlet flow rate and/or pressure ratio lie outside said desired range in order to adjust the inlet inflow rate and/or pressure ratio to meet the working line. The fuel flow to the engine combustor is adjusted concurrently in order to meet the thrust demand.
Claims18
A method of controlling a gas turbine engine, the method comprising:
- receiving an instantaneous thrust demand for current operation of the gas turbine engine;
- determining a flow rate and/or pressure ratio for a compressor of the gas turbine engine;
- determining whether the flow rate and/or the pressure ratio meets a predetermined operating condition for the compressor;
- and
- adjusting an angle of one or more aerofoil of the compressor according to a closed control loop if the flow rate and/or pressure ratio do not meet said predetermined operating condition in order to adjust the flow rate and/or pressure ratio towards said predetermined operating condition;
- and
- concurrently adjusting a fuel flow to a combustor of the gas turbine engine in order to meet the thrust demand by mathematically decoupling terms for adjusting the angle of the one or more airfoil of the compressor and terms for adjusting the fuel flow to the combustor of the gas turbine engine in order to adjust the angle of the one or more airfoil of the compressor and to adjust the fuel flow to the combustor of the gas turbine engine at a same time.
A controller for a gas turbine engine comprising machine readable instructions for controlling operation of the gas turbine engine by:
- receiving an instantaneous thrust demand for current operation of the gas turbine engine;
- determining a flow rate and/or a pressure ratio for a compressor of the gas turbine engine;
- determining whether the flow rate and/or the pressure ratio meet a predetermined operating condition of the compressor;
- and
- adjusting the angle of one or more aerofoil of the compressor according to a closed control loop if the flow rate and/or pressure ratio do not meet the predetermined operating condition in order to adjust the flow rate and/or pressure ratio towards said condition;
- and
- concurrently adjusting fuel flow to a combustor of the gas turbine engine in order to meet the thrust demand by mathematically decoupling terms for adjusting the angle of the one or more airfoil of the compressor and terms for adjusting the fuel flow to the combustor of the gas turbine engine in order to adjust the angle of the one or more aerofoil of the compressor and to adjust the fuel flow to the combustor of the gas turbine engine at a same time.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.