Abstract

With the increased emphasis on aircraft safety, enhanced performance and affordability, and the need to reduce the environmental impact of aircraft, there are many new challenges being faced by the designers of aircraft propulsion systems. The Controls and Dynamics Branch (CDB) at NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) Glenn Research Center (GRC) in Cleveland, Ohio, is leading and participating in various projects in partnership with other organizations within GRC and across NASA, the U.S. aerospace industry, and academia to develop advanced propulsion controls and diagnostics technologies that will help meet the challenging goals of NASA programs under the Aeronautics Research Mission. This presentation provides a brief overview of the various CDB research tasks in aircraft engine control and diagnostics. The state-of-the-art of aircraft engine control is briefly discussed followed by discussion of motivation for each of the research tasks, the research approach, technical challenges and the key progress to date. The tasks to be discussed include active control of propulsion system components, intelligent propulsion diagnostics and control for reliable fault identification and accommodation, distributed engine control, and investigations into unsteady propulsion systems.

Please see the Colloquium Announcement for more details.

An informal coffee & cookie reception will be held prior to the lecture at 2:30 p.m. in the ARMS 3119 Conference Room.