Error Estimation of Measured Exhaust Gas Temperature in Afterburner Mode in an Aero Gas Turbine Engine

In a turbofan engine, thrust is a key parameter which is measured or estimated from various parameters acquired during engine testing in an engine testbed. Exhaust Gas Temperature (EGT) is the most critical parameter used for thrust calculation. This work presents a novel way to measure and correct the errors in EGT measurement. A temperature probe is designed to measure EGT in the engine jet pipe using thermocouples. The temperature probe is designed to withstand the mechanical and temperature loads during the operation. Structural analysis at the design stage provided a strength margin of 90% and eigenfrequency margin of more than 20%. Thermal analysis is carried out to evaluate maximum metal temperature. Errors are quite high in high-temperature measurements which are corrected using the available methodologies. The velocity error, conduction error, and radiation error are estimated for the measured temperature. The difference of 97 K between the measured gas temperature and calculated gas temperature from measured thrust is explained. The estimated velocity error is 1 K, conduction error is 3 K, and radiation error is 69 K. Based on the error estimation, the measurement error is brought down to 24 K. After applying the above corrections, the further difference of 24 K between measured and estimated value can be attributed to thermocouple error of +/-0.4% of the reading for class 1 accuracy thermocouple, other parameter measurement errors, and analysis uncertainties. The present work enables the designer to calculate the errors in high-temperature measurement in a turbofan engine.

Guaranteed Upper Bounds For The Velocity Error Of Pressure-Robust Stokes Discretisations

This paper aims to improve guaranteed error control for the Stokes problem with a focus on pressure-robustness, i.e. for discretisations that compute a discrete velocity that is independent of the exact pressure. A Prager-Synge type result relates the velocity errors of divergence-free primal and perfectly equilibrated dual mixed methods for the velocity stress. The first main result of the paper is a framework with relaxed constraints on the primal and dual method. This enables to use a recently developed mass conserving mixed stress discretisation for the design of equilibrated fluxes and to obtain pressure-independent guaranteed upper bounds for any pressure-robust (not necessarily divergence-free) primal discretisation. The second main result is a provably efficient local design of the equilibrated fluxes with comparably low numerical costs. Numerical examples verify the theoretical findings and show that efficiency indices of our novel guaranteed upper bounds are close to one.

Range prediction issues for doppler related range error elimination, experiment results

Doppler related range measurement error (velocity error) can make a major contribution to the systematic error in radars with linear-frequency modulation of a probing pulse. The velocity error can be eliminated by range prediction. It was difficult to apply this approach to radars with analogue signal processing due to lack of advanced computer aids. In radars with digital signal processing, the velocity error in range measurements is often eliminated by estimating Doppler frequency. This paper covers issues related to the elimination of the velocity error by range prediction without Doppler frequency estimation and presents the experiment results at surveillance radar.

An Advanced Angular Velocity Error Prediction Horizon Self-Tuning Nonlinear Model Predictive Speed Control Strategy for PMSM System

In nonlinear model predictive control (NMPC), higher accuracy can be obtained with a shorter prediction horizon in steady-state, better dynamics can be obtained with a longer prediction horizon in a transient state, and calculation burden is proportional to the prediction horizon which is usually pre-selected as a constant according to dynamics of the system with NMPC. The minimum calculation and prediction accuracy are hard to ensure for all operating states. This can be improved by an online changing prediction horizon. A nonlinear model predictive speed control (NMPSC) with advanced angular velocity error (AAVE) prediction horizon self-tuning method has been proposed in which the prediction horizon is improved as a discrete-time integer variable and can be adjusted during each sampling period. A permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) rotor position control system with the proposed strategy is accomplished. Tracking performances including rotor position Integral of Time-weighted Absolute value of the Error (ITAE), the maximal delay time, and static error are improved about 15.033%, 23.077%, and 10.294% respectively comparing with the conventional NMPSC strategy with a certain prediction horizon. Better disturbance resisting performance, lower weighting factor sensitivities, and higher servo stiffness are achieved. Simulation and experimental results are given to demonstrate the effectiveness and correctness.

The Flow Field, Particle Distribution, and Determination of the Optimal Sampling Area around Aircraft

Particle trajectories around an aircraft will change during a flight; therefore, analyzing particle distribution around the aircraft is necessary to accurately sample aerosols. Both computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations and wind tunnel experiments are employed to optimize the sampling zones around an aircraft. The wind tunnel model is the Harbin Y-12, similar to the Twin Otter and King Air. The aircraft head is taken as the coordinate original point. The coordinate X is parallel to the wings, the coordinate Y is parallel to the fuselage, and the coordinate Z is perpendicular to the fuselage. The results show that the closer the distance to the central line for the X direction is, the greater the velocity error is. A suitable position for sampling is under the fuselage because of low turbulence, convenient connection pipelines, and safety considerations. The shadow and enhancement zone area thicknesses gradually increase with increasing particle size. The shadow zone thickness under the fuselage is approximately 20, 70, 110, and 350 mm for particle sizes of 1, 10, 20, and 50 μm, respectively. The greater the distance from the aircraft head for the Y direction is, the smaller the velocity error is. The attack angle has no obvious effect on the flow speed at different positions. The CFD simulation results are in basic agreement with the wind tunnel experiment results. The optimal sampling zone is approximately 2300–6500 mm for the Y direction for the aircraft head, 250–500 mm for the X direction for the aircraft head, and 490–600 mm for the Z direction under the fuselage of aircraft.

Design of Variable Damping INS for Ships Based on the Variation of Reference Velocity Error

Schuler oscillation damping is one of the key technologies to improve the long-term precision of inertial navigation systems (INSs). Generally, a ship introduces the reference velocity to work on the external horizontal damping status to avoid the effects caused by maneuvers. However, the navigation accuracy is sensitive to the reference velocity error which will be affected by sea conditions and the ship’s maneuver. It is necessary to adjust the damping status dynamically as the change of the reference velocity error to ensure the accuracy and stability of INS. To address this problem, a novel variable damping system based on the variation of the reference velocity error is designed in this paper. First of all, this proposed method switched the damping status according to the variation of the reference velocity error in a certain period of time based on the principle of window detection. In addition, this paper designed a fuzzy controller to avoid the overshoot caused by the frequent switching of the damping status. What is more, a method of overshoot suppression was applied in this system. Simulation experiments were conducted to validate the theoretical analysis and the effectiveness of this method. Compared with the undamping system, constant damping system, and traditional variable damping system, the simulation results verified that the designed variable damping system can attenuate the system error caused by reference velocity error most effectively, thus improving the navigation accuracy of INS.