Michael W. Corbett, Peter T. Lamm, U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory; T. Baudendistel, J. Mitch Wolff, E. A. Walters, PC Krause and Associates, Inc.
Aircraft power demands continue to increase with the increase in electrical subsystems. These subsystems directly affect the behavior of the power and propulsion subsystems and this interdependency can no longer be neglected in system analyses and prognostic health management (PHM) schemes. The performance of the whole aircraft must be considered with the combined interactions between the power, propulsion, and aeronautical subsystems. The larger loading demands placed on the power and propulsion subsystems result in thrust, speed, and altitude transients that affect the whole aircraft and result in different operating parameters. The complex models designed to integrate new capabilities have a high computational cost. This paper investigates the possibility of using a hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) analysis with real time integration of the aircraft/propulsion system and its possible application to PHM schemes. Using this method, a significant reduction in computational runtime is observed, and the airframe/turbine engine model is usable in an observer based PHM system. This would allow for a more complete analysis of the interactions between engine loading and aircraft performance by passing some real hardware component data to a real-time health observer. The possible implementation of a real-time, observer based PHM system is also discussed.
2007 ISHM Conference, August 2007. Contact information: baudendistel@pcka.com