Hardware-in-the-Loop Electric Drive Stand Issues for Jet Engine Simulation

Next generation aircraft will require more electrical power, more thermal cooling, and better versatility. To attain these improvements, technologies will need to be integrated and optimized at a system-level. The complexity of these integrated systems will require considerable analysis. In order to characterize and understand the implications of highly-integrated aircraft systems, the effects of pulsed-power, highly-transient loads, and the technologies that drive system-stability and behavior, an approach will be taken utilizing integrated modeling and simulation with hardware-in-the-loop (HIL). Such experiments can save time and cost and increase the general understanding of electrical and thermal phenomena as it pertains to aircraft systems before completing an integrated ground demonstration. As a first step toward completing an integrated analysis, a dynamometer “drive stand” was characterized to assess its performance. The drive stand's ability to track the low-pressure spool shaft-speed of a turbofan engine will be studied. This work will lead to understanding of the capability of the drive stand to accurately track the turbine engine low-spool speed while experiencing disturbances in the form of a torque load. It is essential to understand the drive stands capability before moving forward with more HIL experiments.