Aircraft AC generators: Hybrid system modeling and simulation

Integrated drive generators (IDGs) are the main source of electrical power for a number of critical systems in aircraft. Fast and accurate fault detection and isolation is a necessary component for safe and reliable operation of the IDG and the aircraft. IDGs are complex systems, and a majority of the existing fault detection and isolation techniques are based on signal analysis and heuristic methods derived from experience. Model-based fault diagnosis techniques are hypothesized to be more general and powerful in designing detection and isolation schemes, but building sufficiently accurate models of complex IDGs is a difficult task. dq0 models have been developed for design and control of generators, but these models are not suitable for fault situations, where the generator may become unbalanced. In this paper, we present a hybrid phase-domain model for the aircraft generator that accurately represents both nominal and parametric faulty behaviors. We present the details of the hybrid modeling approach and simulation results of nominal operation and fault behaviors associated with parametric faults in the aircraft generator. The simulation results show that the developed model is capable of accurately capturing the generator dynamics under a variety of normal and faulty configurations.