Single lever power control for piston aircraft engines

Based on the success of gas turbine and automotive engine control system designs, a single lever power control (SLPC) model for aircraft piston engines has been developed utilizing fuzzy logic controllers. To permit development and refinement of the SLPC controllers, a propulsion simulation workbench has been developed for simulation of light aircraft piston engine applications. The objective of the workbench is to provide a platform on which the aircraft engine control system modeling and development can occur. The workbench is an integrated set of Matlab Simulink^(R) models of a piston aircraft engine, variable pitch propeller, and controller. In addition, an atmospheric model simulates the ambient conditions as they change with aircraft altitude. Results of simulated aircraft missions show dynamic and steady state characteristics of both the propulsion system model and single lever power control system to be acceptable for this application, and demonstrate the utility of the engine/propeller simulation