Systems and methods to control gas turbine firing temperatures during air injection. A method of achieving a desired firing temperature of a gas turbine engine during air injection comprises injecting compressed air into the gas turbine engine using an external source. The external source includes a compressor and a recuperator. The method comprises using a controller of the gas turbine engine to: (a) determine an air injection exhaust bias gain using an inlet temperature of the gas turbine engine; (b) calculate, based on the determined air injection exhaust bias gain and a flow rate of the injected compressed air, an air injection exhaust curve bias; and (c) change a fuel flow of the gas turbine engine by adding the air injection exhaust curve bias to an existing exhaust curve of the gas turbine engine to thereby achieve the desired firing temperature during air injection.

A controller for a gas turbine, wherein the gas turbine includes the compressor arranged to operate at a rotational speed n, the combustor and the fuel supply including the first fuel supply and the second fuel supply, wherein the compressor is arranged to provide air to the combustor at a steady state air mass flow rate m.sub.ss and wherein the fuel supply is arranged to supply fuel at a fuel mass flow rate m.sub.total to the combustor. The controller is arranged to, responsive to a load change ΔL to the load L, control the compressor to provide air to the combustor at a new air mass flow rate m.sub.TR, wherein the new air mass flow rate m.sub.TR is within a range between a first threshold m.sub.LBO and a second threshold m.sub.SUR.

A controller for a gas turbine, wherein the gas turbine includes the compressor arranged to operate at a rotational speed n, the combustor and the fuel supply including the first fuel supply and the second fuel supply, wherein the compressor is arranged to provide air to the combustor at a steady state air mass flow rate m.sub.ss and wherein the fuel supply is arranged to supply fuel at a fuel mass flow rate m.sub.total to the combustor. The controller is arranged to, responsive to a load change ΔL to the load L, control the compressor to provide air to the combustor at a new air mass flow rate m.sub.TR, wherein the new air mass flow rate m.sub.TR is within a range between a first threshold m.sub.LBO and a second threshold m.sub.SUR.

A control system of a gas turbine engine is provided. The engine has a fuel flow metering valve which regulates a fuel flow to the engine, and one or more variable geometry components which are movable between different set points to vary an operating configuration of the engine. The control system has an engine fuel control sub-system which provides a fuel flow demand signal for controlling the fuel flow metering valve. The control system further has a variable geometry control sub-system which determines current set points to be adopted by the variable geometry components given the current engine operating condition in order to comply with one or more engine constraints. The control system further has an optimiser that receives the current set points and determines adjusted values of the set points which optimise, while complying with the engine constraints, an objective function modelling a performance characteristic of the engine, the objective function adapting to change in engine performance with time. The control system further has a feedback loop in which the adjusted values of the set points thus-determined are sent to the variable geometry control sub-system to vary the current set points.

A dispatch advisor for operating a power plant having at least one gas turbine with flexibility is described. The dispatch advisor can generate a representation of a flexible base load map for operating the power plant. The representation can include an aggregation of a primary base load operating space and an expanded portion of the base load operating space. The representation offers a range of operating values for operational parameters of the power plant during base load at various base load settings at predetermined ambient conditions and corresponding power output and efficiency values that are attained while operating the power plant at the range of operating values. This offers an operator of the power plant with flexibility in controlling the plant during base load.

A method for detecting blowout precursors in at least one gas turbine combustor comprising: receiving combustion dynamics acoustic data measured by an acoustic measuring device associated with the combustor in real time; performing wavelet analysis on the acoustic data using simplified Mexican Hat wavelet transform analysis; and determining the existence of a blowout precursor based at least in part on the wavelet analysis. Provided also is a system and a non-transitory computer readable medium configured to perform the method.

A method for detecting blowout precursors in at least one gas turbine combustor comprising: receiving combustion dynamics acoustic data measured by an acoustic measuring device associated with the combustor in real time; performing wavelet analysis on the acoustic data using simplified Mexican Hat wavelet transform analysis; and determining the existence of a blowout precursor based at least in part on the wavelet analysis. Provided also is a system and a non-transitory computer readable medium configured to perform the method.

Systems, computer-implemented methods and/or computer program products that facilitate measuring weight and balance and optimizing center of gravity are provided. In one embodiment, a system 100 utilizes a processor 106 that executes computer implemented components stored in a memory 104. A compression component 108 calculates compression of landing gear struts based on height above ground of an aircraft. A gravity component 110 determines center of gravity based on differential compression of the landing gear struts. An optimization component 112 automatically optimizes the center of gravity to a rear limit of a center of gravity margin.

Systems, computer-implemented methods and/or computer program products that facilitate measuring weight and balance and optimizing center of gravity are provided. In one embodiment, a system 100 utilizes a processor 106 that executes computer implemented components stored in a memory 104. A compression component 108 calculates compression of landing gear struts based on height above ground of an aircraft. A gravity component 110 determines center of gravity based on differential compression of the landing gear struts. An optimization component 112 automatically optimizes the center of gravity to a rear limit of a center of gravity margin.

A method of controlling a combustion system of a gas turbine engine which has a combustor with a primary combustion zone, of which a condition in the primary combustion zone is defined by a primary zone control parameter. The method includes controlling the primary zone control parameter to be substantially constant value over a range of values of compressor inlet air temperature.