An embedded hardware-in-the-loop testbed for aeroengine simulation education

Aeroengine simulation technology plays an important role in the development of advanced aeroengines. It can assist the engine design, shorten the development cycle, and help to reduce the research expense. Aeroengine simulation platform is widely used, especially in the field of aerospace engineering education. Digital simulation is mainly used to validate the initial test of the control algorithm, but the effectiveness of the simulation results is somewhat limited and can not be used as a final reference. As opposed to digital simulation, the traditional aeroengine hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulation is a high confidence method in the control algorithm test, but it is bulky, expensive and not easy to maintain, so it is an urgent need to develop an embedded, miniaturized, and economic HIL simulation platform for the purpose of engineering education. The embedded HIL simulation platform proposed in this paper is based on two kinds of open source hardware: Raspberry Pi and Arduino. The Raspberry Pi will operate as an engine model and the Arduino board will function as the controller. They exchange data through the built-in serial ports. Efficient C codes of the aeroengine model are generated using Real-Time Workshop (RTW) tool. Numerical simulation illustrates the potential of this economical solution in university engineering education.