ESS-38-71

Fuel Control Systems for Aero-Engines

Goutham Ponnusamy
Cranfield University, Cranfield, Bedfordshire MK43 0AL, United Kingdom, g.ponnusamy@cranfield.ac.uk

Abstract

Aircraft Gas Turbine Engines are primarily controlled by the amount of fuel supplied to the combustion chamber. Engine
Control System (ECS) has an important goal of allowing the engine to perform at a maximum efficiency for a given condi-
tion with respect to the complexity of the engine. For an aircraft engine flying in different conditions, the changes in airspeed
or altitude will cause changes in air speed and density through the engine. To compensate to these changes the pilot may have
to operate the fuel valve accordingly, which may lead to lean flameout, rich blowout, or even compressor stall. A FCS at-
tempts to solve these problems by acting as an intermediary between the pilot and the fuel valve. The FCS supervises the
engine potential and controls the amount of fuel flowing into the engine. In this paper we will be discussing the development
of fuel control system for aircraft engines and its types. Correspondingly, a brief study on the development fuel control sys-
tems will also be covered.

Keywords: Engine Control System, Fuel Valve, Lean die-out, Rich burn-out, Compressor stall, FCS

Nomenclature the high combustion from the combustion chamber. If too

little amount of fuel enters into the combustion chamber it
EEC Electronic Fuel Control will lead to lean die-out conditions1.
FCU Fuel Control Unit The amount of thrust that should be produced
EGT Engine Gas Temperature from the engine will depend upon the fuel flow by taking
CIT Compressor Inlet Temperature into consideration the different operating parameters like
Tamb Ambient Temperature ambient pressure, ambient temperature, CIT, engine rpm,
Pamb Ambient Pressure compressor air intake, compressor pressure ratio and throt-
Ng Shaft speed tle power which are all interrelated for the operation of the
RPM Rotations Per Minute fuel control system. Also some other factors should be
taken into account for example if you are taking into con-
sideration a propeller engine propeller factors like air speed
and propeller speed should also be considered unless if it is
1 Introduction
a jet engine where the propeller is not present1.
The main components of the FCU’s will be the
Fuel control system has the responsibility of serv- fuel monitoring unit, computing unit and sensing unit,
ing the gas turbine engines with proper amount of fuel so which works alongside with the fuel valves and fuel
that they can function in a resourceful way to give maxi- pumps. A computer controller from the cockpit can control
mum performance yield. This can be achieved by allowing these units during the different phases of operation. The
the fuel flow into the engine in a well-ordered way during computer controller will be handled by the pilot and if
different operating phases of the engine like initial, accel- necessary a manual override can also be done, i.e. con-
eration and steady running conditions during operation1. trolled manually during the times of emergency1; 2.
Different manufacturers from the past for the gas turbine
engines have so far developed many different models of
FCU’s. The simplest of them is the manually operated
systems. This type of FCU’s gone to extinction from the 2 Comparison between Aero and Industrial FCU’s
field soon because of its complexity of operation through
manual monitoring. A pilot has to look after many other The fuel control systems for aero gas turbines
systems in the cockpit additional to the other systems, when compared with stationery gas turbines must be more
which aid in the operation of the engine as well as the efficient in terms of working as well as the design. The
aircraft. If the fuel valve is not operated in a proper way it aero gas turbine FCU’s should be more compact in design
may lead to rich blowout, which leads to too much of fuel so that it occupies less weight and space. Whereas, the
entering into the combustion chamber causing damages to stationery gas turbines can be allowed to lodge some addi-
the turbine sections, compressor surge or stall because of tional space and weight, as it will be in ground hence it can

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G. Ponnusamy / Fuel Control Systems for Aero-Engines.

be given some leverage. The monitoring systems and the

computing systems must be more efficient since there is no
room for errors while the engine is on the air. Errors in
stationery gas turbines can be attempted as soon as possible
and substantial damages to the engine can be avoided, as it
is stationary3.
Aero gas turbine engines use mostly Electronic
Engine controls (EEC’s) and Full Authority Digital Elec-
tronic Controls (FADEC) as it should be more efficient to
monitor the performance parameters with a high response
for the variable operating conditions. Stationery gas tur-
bine control systems indeed should be efficient but it oper-
ates only at constant speed to give constant work output
hence control systems are need not necessarily to be as aero
gas turbines. When it comes to reliability aero gas turbine
must be more reliable than stationer but of course it needs
to be reliable as well in terms of marketing and function-
ing, aero engine must be reliable as it will be on air to take
necessary actions during even a slight failure1.
Figure 2: Operation Curve of a typical FCU

3 The Fuel Control System

The figure 1 above shows the operation of the

The fuel control system for Aero-gas turbine en- FCU with respect to the different engine operations by
gines varies from one engine to other depending upon the taking in account the performance parameters like power
purpose, type of fuel and the operating conditions. But level, rpm, throttle, air flow etc. The engine should get
mostly the gas turbine engines nowadays are operated constant amount of fuel flow when it is accelerating from
through means of either the electronic control or fully idle conditions and increases as it attains idle speed. The
digitalized controls. Figure 1: shows a typical
FuelFCU for a
system fuel flow decreases as the engine is operated continuously
Gas turbine engine. in idle speed. From this point the fuel flow should be in-
creased with respect to the increase in the rpm but the
compressor stall must taken care. When the engine is about
to attain its 100 per cent rpm the fuel flow should be de-
creased in order to avoid over speeding and to maintain the
maximum constant speed. At the end fuel flow is gradually
decreased with the decrease in rpm.

3.1 Components

3.1.1 The Fuel Metering device

The gas turbine engines as well faces the effects

of ageing when it is operated over the time. During early
stages of operation the fuel flow and air into the combus-
tion chamber from the compressor will be much efficient.
Figure 1: A FCU with its components4 This is because the components are new and they will tend
to deteriorate with respect to time. Fuel metering device
Here we can see that the entire fuel flow into the tends to monitor the parameters like compressor ratio,
engine’s combustion chamber is being controlled by the power level and temperature and allows the control unit to
FCU where there are two shutoff valves controlling the supply proper ratio of fuel to the combustion process.
entry and exit of the fuel. All the flow activities are being
monitored by the control system, which controls the fuel 3.1.2 Computing System
control valve (FCV) with response to the operating condi-
tions of the engine. These controls can either be mechanical The computing system utilizes the engine speed
or electrical using sensors. (N), burner pressure Ps4, ambient pressure (Pamb) and power
Fig. 10-10 Governor movement and fuel flow control.

108
level position and schedules fuel flow into the engine. This
unit mainly monitors the burner pressure (Ps4) outside and
ambient pressure (Pamb) and controls fuel flow for proper
engine performance. The system consists of sensors to
monitor the parameters, ratio lever and multiplying lever to
adjust the ratio the flow by operating the throttle valves.
The computing system provides information to the pilot in
the cockpit for monitoring the engine performance.

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G. Ponnusamy / Fuel Control Systems for Aero-Engines.

3.1.3 Sensors for this type of system is the PT6 engines turboprop en-
gine2.

The sensors aid the computing system to monitor 3.2.3 Electro-Hydro Mechanical Fuel Control Unit
the engine operation by collecting the data’s from different
stages of the engine. Electro-Hydro Mechanical type of fuel control
unit is not much widely used in most of the engines in
3.1.4 The Fuel Valves recent years. The main structure of the system is an electri-
cal circuit unit fitted with a hydraulic unit having sensors.
This type of control units are mostly used in large multi-
The fuel valves allow the fuel to flow into the spool turbofan engines. In this type of system an amplifier
combustion chamber. The computer monitoring the engine is used to protect the engine from over speeding in whatev-
is controlling these valves. er the operating condition it is operating. A good example
is the Garrett TFE-731 and ATF-32.
3.2 Types of FCU’s
  3.2.4 Auxiliary Power Unit Fuel Control System
3.2.1 Hydro-Mechanical control Unit
An Electronic Engine Control is a typical Hydro-
The hydro-mechanical unit has high pressure and Mechanical control unit with some additional electrical
low pressure sensing unit containing a combination of a components. These components are added to avoid over-
flyweight governor with diaphragm and sensors that moni- heating and over speeding of the gas turbine engine. When
tors various factors like discharge pressure form the com- there is a condition of failure of Electrical Control Unit it
pressor, burner can pressure and exhaust pipe pressure. In will automatically be reverted to Hydro-Mechanical unit to
Most of the hydro-mechanical unit’s the engine fuel pump take control of the engine fuel control operation2.
is integrated into the system2.

Figure 3: Hydro-Mechanical Fuel Control Unit5

3.2.2 Hydro-Pneumatic Control Unit

  Figure 4: APU Control Unit6
This type of fuel control system consists of an
3.2.5 Full Authority Electronic Control
engine driven pump, a starting control, a fuel drain mani-
fold and valves, which help in the fuel control operation. It This type of control systems has digital computer,
also has a drain valve to drain the residual fuel from the
which operates a servo operated fuel valve, and a power
engine fuel valve. The Fuel pump delivers fuel to the com- lever is electrically connected to the fuel control. When
bustion process from a filtration unit through a positive compared to the above two control systems this type of fuel
displacement gearbox. The pumped fuel is sent to the
control system is more reliable and effective in fuel control
control unit in high pressure through the pump outlet by a for the engine1.
filter. Control system helps in scheduling the fuel flow with
respect to the data’s. The fuel control unit provides a proper
flow of fuel by monitoring the N and Tamp of the engine.
The metering section of the engine shows the amount of 4 Fuel Control Systems for different Engines
fuel transferred to the process. The control unit is also
equipped with a Pneumatic system long with a Hydraulic
unit to provide efficient fuel flow compared to the Hydro- Although the function of the fuel control system is to
Mechanical unit. The pneumatic control system uses a serve the engine with the effective supply of fuel the sys-
Bellows assembly and a computing section with sensors
tems configuration varies with different types of gas tur-
that aid in the data collection and operation of the hydraulic
unit with the help of a governor fitted to it. A good example bine engines. Lets look at the different types of fuel control
systems for different types of gas turbine engines.

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G. Ponnusamy / Fuel Control Systems for Aero-Engines.

4.1 Turboprop Engine’s FCU fuel pressure in the FCU. For safety a shutoff valve is fitted
to ensure that the fuel flow will be fully restricted when
Turboprop engine operation is quite typical and there is a depression1.
operated by the Hydro-Pneumatic Control System; where
the propeller is driven by a reduction gearbox fitted in the 4.1.3 Speed Control
engine determines the engine speed and as usual turbine
drives compressor in addition to the propeller. The FCU is A speed control sensor called as a tachometer
mounted on the flange at the rear end of the fuel pump. The containing flyweights that generates a centrifugal force,
compressor and turbine speed is monitored and the signal is which is directly proportional to the counter weights, con-
transmitted. The engine power developed is based on the trols the speed of the engine. The operation of the tachome-
speed of the compressor and turbine date obtained through ter is controlled by components such as orifice, pilot valves
proper control of fuel flow. The system also has a fuel and stationery pistons. To maintain stationery speed the
limiting function that controls over speeding and over pressure will be nosebleed by maintaining the pressure of
heating of the engine. Here, PT-6A-60/65 is used as an the servo1.
example to explain the propeller engine’s Fuel Control
System1. 4.1.4 Over-Speed

When the engine reaches the condition of over-

4.1.1 Components speed the valves will be opened to reduce the flow of fuel
in to the engine to reduce the speed1.
1
• Condition Lever, which controls initial, low
speed and high-speed functions of the engine.
• Power Lever, controlling the high-speed and 4.1.5 Under-Speed
maximum speed inside the engines.
• Fuel Valve, manages the entry and exit of the fuel Engine while reaching lower speed the flyweight
inside the engine. governor loses the force moving the valve downwards
• Flyweight Governor, which maintains the maxi- increasing the area of the fuel valve to enhance the flow of
mum speed of the engine through fuel flow. the fuel1.
• Pneumatic Bellows, Controlling the acceleration
and the propeller speed. 4.2 Turbo shaft Engines

The turbo shaft engine is operated as same of a

gas turbine engine in turn which the shaft is monitored by
one or more sections of the turbine to generate thrust. The
turbo shaft engine’s FCU comprises of two units, one
section monitors the performance parameters as common
as other types of FCU’s and the second section senses the
operation of the shaft and ensures a proper flow of fuel for
proper work output. The main components are speed sen-
sors, flyweight governor, throttle power lever etc. Contin-
ues monitoring of the compressor, turbine and the shaft
operation ensures a proper fuel flow control. But in turbojet
engines turbine inlet conditions are monitored as well1.

4.2.1 Gas-Producer Fuel Control

The gas producer does the function as found in

the other types of engine FCU’s. It maintains the pressure
difference between the valve that allows the fuel entry and
exit into the engine. The pressure difference is maintained
across the valve with the help of the metering unit in the
Figure 5: Turboprop Engine showing Fuel Control Unit7 system. The governor bellows allows the fuel valve to be
operated in an efficient way during high and low speed
4.1.2 Operating Principle. conditions. The operation depends mainly on the control of
various pressures to move the metering valve as required
The fuel control unit receives fuel through the for the fuel flow to the engine. The operation the gas pro-
help of pressurized fuel pump, which then is transferred ducer valve guides the governor to maintain proper func-
though the fuel orifice, the fuel flow valve and the bypass tioning1; 2.
valve as metered fuel. This maintains a constant difference
in pressure throughout the fuel valve. Changing the area of 4.2.2 Governor
the orifice of the fuel flow valve compensates the fuel
requirement of the engine. If the fuel supplied exceeds the
limit than required it will be bypassed back to the fuel The governor operates the fuel valves as guided
pump. A piston that maintains the pressure difference by the control unit with respect to the data’s gathered from
through a porting sleeve and an actuated spring operates the compressor, turbine and ambient conditions inside and
the bypass valve. The output valve is also maintained by a outside of the engine. The governor increase the area of the
pressure minimizer valve at the rear end for an efficient fuel valve during low speed for providing maximum fuel

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G. Ponnusamy / Fuel Control Systems for Aero-Engines.

flow and decreases the valve area during high speed to to the crew in the cockpit will be notified through light
compensate the fuel consumption.1 signals. Hence harmful damage for the engine can be pre-
vented.1

5 Electronic Engine Controls 5.2 Full Authority Digital Electronic Control (FADEC)

To provide the engine with more engine lifetime, The full authority digital control unit is a full
power, fuel consumption, reliability improvement, work- electrical component design that incorporates no mechani-
load reduction and maintenance costs precise control unit is cal or manual operation9. The main components are digital
1
to be more efficient in operation . Depending upon the computed which monitors the data’s with the help of sens-
operation there are two types of controls under this type, ing unit. The whole system is operated electrically through
the Supervisory one and Full authority digital control unit. actuators and there is no room for errors since there is no
The difference between these two engines is that the super- possibility of manual override. If an error occurs in the
visory control operates the hydro mechanical unit with the engine the engine will be forced to face a shut down condi-
help of a computer that monitors data of the engine, where tion of the FADEC system. But, comparatively the FADEC
a full authority controller operates actuators that are con- system is more reliable and much efficient in operation that
trolled electrically with the help of digital computers moni- the other type of fuel control units1; 2; 9.
FUEL SYSTEM
toring the performance throughout the engine . 2 26/02/2013 23:43
The optimum efficiency is obtained from a high
performance computer, which is operated 70 frames per
second that monitors all the parameters like pressure, tem-
perature, rpm, EGT, TCA, TLA and so on. The data’s are
stored and can be used for maintenance purposes whenever
necessary. The feature in this type of control is that it can
be selected for manual operation whenever the pilot choos-
es to operate1; 2.

Figure 6: EEC unit Schematic diagram8

5.1 Supervisory EEC’s

Some of the fuel control units used in the engines Figure 7: FADEC Unit by Garrett for a TFE-731-59
are JT9D-7R4 EEC, Hamilton standard EEC-103 unit. The
main components include a permanent magnet alternator, Garrett Digital Fuel Controller is an efficient type
air-bleed valve, vane control, and pressure sensors to moni- of fuel controller used in TFE-731-5 turbofan engines.
tor the compressor, turbine operation and operate the fuel
control unit electrically. The thrust production is so precise • The controller is used to maintain thrust with respect
with respect to Ng and engine temperature data collected to the change in temperature, altitude variation and
and stored in for future maintenance. In addition to the fuel inlet temperature.
flow the cooling control is also taken care of the EEC1; 2. • Maintains surge margin
The thrust production is made to be uniform with
the help of data’s like EPR, rpm, Mach number, flight • Fuel flow enhancement with effectiveness during
speed, inlet pressure and temperature whatever the changes starting conditions.
in the operation condition is. The level operating the thrust • Low maximum flow schedules
id moved with respect to the data’s obtained. If the lever is • Temperature limiting enhancements at all times.
in full forward position the thrust reduction is maximum
http://free-ed.net/sweethaven/MechTech/Aviation/ch04.htm Page 28 of 31

and can be reduced as it is lowered. The design of the EEC • Over speed and over heating reduction and preven-
is so precise so that it gives efficient thrust production by tion at all times.
avoiding any critical problem that the engine could end up • It can be synchronized with engine parameters at all
with1. times.
Whenever a malfunction occurs in the engine the • Fault detection with absolute perfection.
control unit will be changed to Hydro-Mechanical unit
form the electrical unit. This change will be automatic by
the monitoring system and he control unit but an indication Safety is most priority for the aero engines as the
engine operation in air; the FADEC is most reliable in all

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G. Ponnusamy / Fuel Control Systems for Aero-Engines.

cases of operating conditions. The engine operation is Acknowledgements

monitored through different channels and so there would be
minimal disruption in the operation2; 9. I would like to express my gratitude
towards Dr. Yi-Guang for giving me this opportunity to
develop my knowledge on the topic and the Board of Di-
rectors for providing sufficient time and resources. Lastly,
6 Future Developments beloved friends who stood with me from the beginning to
help me learn do and finish up the work in time.
In aircraft engine reliability becomes more im-
portant compared to aero engines and hence manufacturers
taking this in account are developing more reliable and 8 Reference
high efficient fuel control systems. The developments
include upgrade of high resistive fuel pumps, electro mag-
netic controls etc. High performance EEC’s with more [1] 1. Kroes, M. J. and Wild, T. W. (1994), Aircraft
capability than those of in at present. Less weight in be- powerplants, 7th ed, Glencoe, New York.
tween 5-7 kgs and low cost will be the advantages in the [2] 2. Otis, C. (1991), Aircraft gas turbine powerplants, 2nd
ed, Iap, Casper, WY.
development. These are the Multichip modules EEC’s
[3] 3. Soares, C. (2008), Gas turbines : a handbook of air,
where the engine could be equipped with four of those
land, and sea applications, Butterworth-Heinemann,
controls to monitor and provide better performance. The London.
improvements are made in order to cope up with the devel- [4] 4. Rolls Royce plc (1996), The jet engine, 5th ed, Rolls
opments in other components and in the improvements in Royce plc, Derby.
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ed.net/sweethaven/MechTech/Aviation/fig0414.gif
7 Conclusion (accessed 03/03).
[6] 6. http://www.gasturbine.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk ,
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put expected in those are the same. mb/6/69/Turboprop_cutaway.jpg/1280px-
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without spoiling it.

6