Patent ID: 11913342
Assignee: PRATT & WHITNEY CANADA CORP.
Field: Engines, pumps, turbines (Mechanical engineering)
Classification: CPC F | IPC F

Claim 10:
11. An aircraft engine comprising:
a variable guide vane assembly including guide vanes rotatable about respective spanwise axes and circumferentially distributed about a central axis;
an actuator drivingly engaged to the guide vanes for rotating the guide vanes about the respective spanwise axes;
a sensor operable to send a signal indicative of a geometric angle of the guide vanes, the geometric angle defined between the guide vanes and the central axis; and
a controller operatively connected to the actuator and to the sensor, the controller having a processing unit and a computer-readable medium operatively connected to the processing unit and having instructions stored thereon configured to cause the processing unit to:
obtain a target exit flow angle defined between a direction of a flow exiting the guide vanes and the central axis;
predicting an exit flow angle as a function of at least a geometric angle, the exit flow angle defined between the direction of the flow exiting the guide vanes and the central axis, the geometric angle determined based on the signal from the sensor; and
when a difference between the exit flow angle and the target exit flow angle is above a threshold, power the actuator to modulate the guide vanes to modify the geometric angle until the difference between the predicted exit flow angle and the target exit flow angle is at or below the threshold.