A Microprocessor Based Sequencer for Gas Turbine Engines

In recent years, electronic controls and sequencers have gained increasing acceptance for use in control of industrial gas turbine engines. This has been due to increased reliability of electronic components and more complex control requirements. A technological innovation, the microprocessor, is likely to accelerate this trend and provide a new level of sophistication to controls of this type.

Basically, a microprocessor is a digital computer which has been reduced to a circuit less than 1/4″ square. This circuit will perform a sequence of operations or instructions according to a predetermined plan or program. The program is stored in another pin-head sized electronic circuit called a Read Only Memory or ROM. When provided with a means of communicating with the outside world, these circuits can perform exceedingly fast and accurate calculations needed to control a gas turbine engine. This paper will explore one approach to the practical application of microprocessors to this problem.