Design method of optimal control schedule for the adaptive cycle engine steady-state performance

The alternative working modes and flexible working states are the outstanding features of an adaptive cycle engine, with a proper control schedule design being the only way to exploit the performance of such an engine. However, unreasonable design in the control schedule causes not only performance deterioration but also serious aerodynamic stability problems. Thus, in this work, a hybrid optimization method that automatically chooses the working modes and identifies the optimal and smooth control schedules is proposed, by combining the differential evolution algorithm and the Latin hypercube sampling method. The control schedule architecture does not only optimize the engine steady-state performance under different working modes but also solves the control-schedule discontinuity problem, especially during mode transition. The optimal control schedules are continuous and almost monotonic, and hence are strongly suitable for a control system, and are designed for two different working conditions, i.e., supersonic and subsonic throttling, which proves that the proposed hybrid method applies to various working conditions. The evaluation demonstrates that the proposed control method optimizes the engine performance, the surge margin of the compression components, and the range of the thrust during throttling.