Advanced Tracking Filters for Aircraft Engine Performance Monitoring

Advanced concepts such as model based control are expected to yield significant improvements in engine thrust to weight ratios by operating closer to the temperature/stall margins, accurately tracking the pilot commands, and generating more accurate prediction of preventive maintenance schedules. Central element of these advanced control concepts is a tracking filter that continuously updates the engine model by estimating performance related parameters and the desired outputs in real time.This proposal advances the applicaton of emerging robust nonlinear adaptive estimators for synthesizing the tracking filters. A nonlinear engine model will be used for the development of the tracking filters. Phase I will establish the feasibillity of applying nonlinear filiter design techniques to the tracking filter. One or two techniques will then be chosen for implementation in Phase II. Phase II research will develop prototype tracking filters and implement them on a Full Authority Digital Engine Controller (FADEC). The tracking filter algorithms will be tested on real engines during Phase III work.