Hardware-in-the-loop simulation of two-shaft gas turbine engine’s electronic control unit

An electronic control unit for a fuel control system of two-shaft gas turbine engines plays an undisputable role in providing the required fuel flow to the engine as well as satisfying engine’s operational characteristics. One of the main challenges in designing such unit is the accuracy of its performance and the control strategy implementation on an electronic hardware via repeatable and comprehensive tests. In this article, a hardware-in-the-loop simulation is presented for testing of the electronic control unit for a two-shaft gas turbine engine. For this purpose, the engine is first presented and modeled by the use of Wiener block structure method. The fuel controller with Min–Max structure is then explained. Finally, the controller is implemented on a PC/104 hardware and tested in an hardware-in-the-loop simulation in order to verify its correct performance. The results show that the fuel controller satisfies all of the engine’s physical constraints, confirming the controller competence and successful implementation of the engine control algorithm on the PC/104 hardware.