Provided herein is a system and method for tuning the operation of a turbine and optimizing the mechanical life of a heat recovery steam generator. Provided therewith is a turbine controller, sensor means for sensing operational parameters, control means for adjusting operational control elements. The controller is adapted to tune the operation of the gas turbine in accordance preprogrammed steps in response to operational priorities selected by a user. The operational priorities preferably comprise optimal heat recovery steam generator life.

A gas turbine engine for an aircraft includes a staged combustion system having pilot fuel injectors and main fuel injectors. The gas turbine engine further includes a fuel delivery regulator arranged to control delivery of fuel to the pilot and main fuel injectors, and a fuel characteristic determination module configured to determine one or more fuel characteristics of the fuel being supplied to the staged combustion system. A controller is configured to determine a staging point defining the point at which the staged combustion system is switched between pilot-only operation and pilot-and-main operation, the staging point being determined based on the determined one or more fuel characteristics, the controller being configured to control the staged combustion system according to the determined staging point.

A system includes a burn flow line and a flow divider valve in fluid communication with the burn flow line to split flow from the burn flow line to a primary line and to a secondary line for supplying fuel to a set of primary engine nozzles and to a set of secondary engine nozzles, respectively. A sensor operatively connected to the flow divider valve to produce a feedback signal indicative of flow split between the primary line and the secondary line. A controller is operatively connected to receive the feedback signal from the senor, compare the feedback signal to a stored flow split value for a mismatch, and output an alert message upon detecting the mismatch.

Various embodiments include a system having: at least one computing device configured to tune a set of gas turbines (GTs) by performing actions including: commanding each GT in the set of GTs to a base load level, based upon a measured ambient condition for each GT; commanding each GT in the set of GTs to adjust a respective fuel flow to match a nominal fuel flow value, and subsequently measuring an actual power output value for each GT; and adjusting an operating condition of each GT in the set of GTs based upon a difference between the respective measured actual power output value and a nominal power output value at the ambient condition.

A combustion control device is installed in a gas turbine including a compressor, a combustor, a turbine, a turbine bypass pipe through which compressed air from a casing is discharged to a turbine downstream part so as to bypass the turbine, and a turbine bypass valve that regulates a turbine bypass flow rate of the compressed air. The combustion control device includes: a fuel distribution setting unit that sets a turbine inlet temperature or a turbine inlet temperature-equivalent control variable on the basis of input data, and sets fuel distribution ratios on the basis of the turbine inlet temperature or the turbine inlet temperature-equivalent control variable; and a fuel valve opening setting section that sets the valve openings of fuel regulating valves. The fuel distribution setting unit includes correction means for modifying the fuel distribution ratios.

A fuel conditioning system includes a heater for selectively adjusting an operating temperature of the fuel and a controller communicatively coupled to the heater. The controller configured to determine a dew point temperature of the fuel and maintain the operating temperature of the fuel at least at the determined dew point temperature of the fuel.

A method for fueling an aircraft comprises (a) predicting a sequence of fuel-burn quantities over a planned flight based on at least one sequence of multivariate flight data recorded during a prior flight and on a hidden state of a trained machine. For each of a pre-selected series of prior flights, a corresponding sequence of multivariate flight data recorded during the prior flight is processed in a trainable machine to develop the hidden state, which minimizes an overall residual for replicating the fuel-burn quantities in each corresponding sequence. The method further comprises (b) summing the fuel-burn quantities over the planned flight to obtain a fueling estimate; and (c) fueling the aircraft based in part on the fueling estimate.

A fuel system for a gas turbine engine configured to combust hydrogen fuel. The fuel system includes a main fuel conduit, a fuel pump configured to operate on hydrogen within the fuel conduit to provide pressurised fuel to a core combustor of the gas turbine engine, an auxiliary combustor downstream in fuel flow of the fuel pump, and configured to combust a portion of fuel diverted from the main fuel conduit and to heat a remainder of fuel in the main fuel conduit, and a fuel turbine downstream in fuel flow of the auxiliary combustor. The fuel turbine is configured to be driven by the heated fuel from the auxiliary combustor and configured to power the fuel pump. The fuel system includes a turbine bypass conduit configured to selectively bypass fuel around the fuel turbine. A method of operation is also described.

A fuel conditioning system includes a heater for selectively adjusting an operating temperature of the fuel and a controller communicatively coupled to the heater. The controller configured to determine a dew point temperature of the fuel and maintain the operating temperature of the fuel at least at the determined dew point temperature of the fuel.

A method for fueling an aircraft comprises (a) predicting a sequence of fuel-burn quantities over a planned flight based on at least one sequence of multivariate flight data recorded during a prior flight and on a hidden state of a trained machine. For each of a pre-selected series of prior flights, a corresponding sequence of multivariate flight data recorded during the prior flight is processed in a trainable machine to develop the hidden state, which minimizes an overall residual for replicating the fuel-burn quantities in each corresponding sequence. The method further comprises (b) summing the fuel-burn quantities over the planned flight to obtain a fueling estimate; and (c) fueling the aircraft based in part on the fueling estimate.