Conceptual Development of Wireless Distributed Control System for a Micro Gas Turbine Engine

Gas turbines are important in aviation and other industrial applications as well. In the recent decades, full authority digital electronic control systems are dominant, resulting in an ever-increasing number of sensors and actuators applied to the engines, thus, the complexity of the entire system can easily become problematic. Therefore, this paper focuses on a wireless solution that can use the waste heat from the engine casing to generate electrical power for distributed elements of the control system. The research begun with thermal imaging of a particular turboshaft engine of type Deutz T216, which serves as a basis for the development. The obtained thermal field of the engine casing is then used to select appropriate locations for the sensors and actuators. The prototype of the system includes a sensor and an actuator that are both connected to an mbed LPC1768 board supporting the central microcontroller equipped with an XBee wireless module to provide command and feedback to a remote computer. The obtained data and experience show the feasibility of the distributed principle and further development of a complete system based on wireless technology can be carried out. © 2023 IEEE.