MULTI-STAGE SYSTEM IDENTIFICATION OF A GAS TURBINE

Several techniques have recently been proposed to identify open-loop system models from input-output data obtained while the plant is operating under closed-loop control. So called multi-stage identification techniques are particularly useful in industrial applications where obtaining input-output information in the absence of closed-loop control is often difficult. These open loop system models can then be employed in the design of more sophisticated closed-loop controllers. This paper introduces a methodology to identify linear open-loop models of gas turbine engines using a multi-stage identification procedure. The procedure utilizes closed-loop data to identify a closed-loop sensitivity function in the first stage and extracts the open-loop plant model in the second stage. The closed-loop data can be obtained by any sufficiently informative experiment from a plant in operation or simulation. We present simulation results here. This is the logical process to follow since using experimentation is often prohibitively expensive and unpractical. Both identification stages use standard open-loop identification techniques. We then propose a series of techniques to validate the accuracy of the identified models against first principles simulations in both the time and frequency domains. Finally, the potential to use these models for control design is discussed.