Patent ID: 8321120

Claim:
A gas turbine engine system, comprising: a gas turbine engine adapted to receive fuel and air and configured to (i) controllably combust a mixture of the fuel and the air and (ii) discharge at least a portion of the combusted fuel air mixture as exhaust gas; an exhaust gas temperature (EGT) sensor configured to sense exhaust gas temperature and supply an EGT sensor signal representative thereof; and a controller configured to implement a plurality of speed-referenced acceleration rate schedules, the controller coupled to receive the EGT sensor signal and operable to: (i) determine whether the EGT sensor signal is available or unavailable, (ii) command a nominal acceleration rate of the gas turbine engine during a start-up operation of the gas turbine engine if the EGT sensor signal is available, and (iii) command an off-nominal acceleration rate of the gas turbine engine during a start-up operation of the gas turbine engine if the EGT sensor signal is unavailable, wherein the off-nominal acceleration rate is lower than the nominal acceleration rate, wherein the acceleration rate that the controller commands is supplied from one of the speed-referenced acceleration rate schedules.