Rapidly increasing fuel costs, the increasing complexity of the new engines now available, along with the inaccuracies, inefficiencies and long test cycles inherent in manual testing push the cost of engine testing to unnecessary levels. One promising avenue of relief is the automation of gas turbine testing through the use of real-time computer data acquisition and processing systems.
Remarkable progress has been made in the area of closed-loop or fully automatic operation of the test process from start-up using various programmable steps, recording results as dictated by the test procedure, controlling operation and a safe engine shut down. This paper discusses the successful application of a real-time computer system with both closed and open-loop capabilities. This particular system called “ADAPS™” (Automatic Data Acquisition and Processing System) handled its first 3,000 hours of engine operation without a single hardware or software interruption. Savings in manpower alone in that period was nearly 18,000 man-hours.
Real-Time Onboard Global Nonlinear Aerodynamic Modeling from Flight Data
