Sliding mode control with system constraints for aircraft engines

Area of Science:

• Aerospace Engineering
• Control Systems Theory

Background:

• Aircraft engine control systems face challenges with high-frequency switching, leading to instability and performance degradation.
• Existing methods for attenuating chattering in sliding mode control are insufficient to address system constraints.
• Input, output, and input rate constraints significantly impact the stability and performance of uncertain nonlinear systems.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a constraint-tolerant sliding mode control strategy for aircraft engine stability.
• To design robust controllers that explicitly account for system limitations.
• To improve the performance of aircraft engine control under various operational constraints.

Main Methods:

• A constraint-tolerant design approach is combined with a sliding mode strategy.
• Lyapunov analysis is employed to design sliding mode regulators for uncertain nonlinear systems with constraints.
• The proposed methodology is validated through simulations on a turbofan engine model.

Main Results:

• The developed control strategy effectively handles speed tracking requirements in the turbofan engine.
• The system demonstrates stable limit protection despite the presence of system constraints.
• The approach successfully mitigates the negative impacts of input, output, and input rate limitations on control stability.

Conclusions:

• The proposed constraint-tolerant sliding mode control offers a viable solution for enhancing aircraft engine stability.
• This methodology provides a robust framework for addressing complex control challenges in aerospace applications.
• The results confirm the effectiveness of the approach in maintaining stable operation under system constraints.