Application of parallel processing in fault tolerant gas turbine engine control

Describes a demonstrator project investigating the use of parallel processing in fault-tolerant gas turbine engine control undertaken by Dowty Controls. The vehicle for this work is the Inmos transputer. As a multiple processor architecture is to be used there is inherent redundancy within the system and the aim of this work is to try and exploit this redundancy to introduce fault tolerance into the system while efficiently utilising the processing power available. A system simulator is under development which uses multiprocessor arrays. This simulator allows engine and controller simulations to be operated in closed-loop and allows different fault tolerant strategies and dynamic reconfiguration to be investigated. A user interface is used to alter system parameters during operation and for inducing failures in the system. Among the concepts being investigated are load balancing, dynamic scheduling, fault detection and recovery strategies