Reduced order model for an electro-hydraulic valve of a gas turbine engine's controller

Abstract

Gas turbine engines (GTE) are widely used in military and industrial applications. Accurate modeling is mandatory to advance GTE control. The present article investigates, experimentally and theoretically, a detailed dynamic model of an electro-hydraulic system that controls a variable geometry inlet guide vanes (VIGV) of turboshaft GTE. A parametric study for the computationally expensive and time-consuming model has been conducted considering the forces affecting the valve's spool and its relatively short settling time. A reduced mathematical model has been developed. The prediction results of the reduced and full-detailed models have been compared with the experimental results. The reduced model has decreased calculation time by 45% to 50 % while keeping the RMSE of the model within 1-2 % away from the actual system's experimental results for the complete operating range. An improvement allows future studies to integrate the whole subsystems of the GTE in a single computationally affordable model.