Experimental Study on Gas Temperature Control for a High-Speed Heat-Airflow Wind Tunnel

In this article, a practical temperature control issue of gas for a high-speed heat-airflow wind tunnel (HSHAWT) is solved. Based on the principal analysis and the system configuration description, the mathematical models to describe the dynamic characteristics of the fuel delivery system and the fuel combustion system are established. Two control frameworks of gas temperature for HSHAWT are proposed. One is to realize the gas temperature control by using the method that regulates the fuel flow rate on the basis of the air flow rate being a constant; the other is the two-loop cascade control framework that takes gas temperature as a controlled objective, fuel flow rate as a controlled object in the secondary control loop, and gas temperature as the controlled object in the main control loop. Furthermore, experimental comparative studies on the flow rate of fuel and temperature of gas are carried out by using a variety of control algorithms, and a satisfactory control effect on the gas temperature is achieved. (C) 2016 American Society of Civil Engineers.