Fully distributed control of variable cycle engine

Adopting distributed control architecture can reduce the weight of the variable cycle engine control and conducive to the development and expansion of the system. A fully distributed control architecture is proposed. The calculations of control algorithm are completely distributed to the smart actuators. And the parameter values required for the calculation are sent to the smart actuator by smart sensors through a serial data bus. The main work of developing fully distributed control for variable cycle engine is to design decentralized control algorithm and the bus communication program. The coupling of control loops is considered part of the total disturbance. Through estimating the total disturbance and cancelling it in the control signal by linear active disturbance rejection controller (ADRC), decentralized control is realized. Based on the CAN bus hardware, a time triggered bus communication program is designed using the CANaerospace higher layer protocol. Thus the fully distributed control system of variable cycle engine is realized. A simulation system is built in the MATLAB/Simulink environment with TrueTime toolbox. TrueTime Kernel modules are used to simulate computing units of smart actuators and smart sensors. TrueTime Network module is used to simulate CAN bus. The linear ADRC and CANaerospace protocol are written to the computing unit. The simulation results show that the established variable cycle engine fully distributed control system could adapt to a wide range of intake status and changes in health status of the engine and has strong robustness. © 2016, Press of Chinese Journal of Aeronautics. All right reserved.