Active Fault Tolerant Model Predictive Control of a Turbofan Engine Using C-MAPSS40k Available to Purchase

Engine control plays a crucial role in the sustained operation of turbofan engines which are complex nonlinear systems. As engines have evolved to higher capabilities it is essential to update the control strategy. Current baseline controllers house the min-max architecture consisting of individual limit controllers. In this paper the industrial baseline controller is replaced by a Model Predictive Control (MPC) law, a model based control technique that can handle complex constrained dynamics. This allows the incorporation of component faults in the control design, that occur during an engine’s operation due to wear and tear and foreign object ingestion affecting the engine performance. A multi-model MPC with on-line optimization is applied to a nonlinear turbofan engine in the presence of component faults, investigating the control of both, fan speed and thrust. Simulations are verified with C-MAPSS40k demonstrating the successful replacement of the baseline controller with an on-line fault tolerant MPC.