SUbsonic Single Aft eNgine (SUSAN) Power/Propulsion System Hardware-in-the-Loop Test Results

Electrified aircraft propulsion (EAP) technology offers a promising path forward for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and other negative environmental effects from the commercial aviation sector. EAP systems can reduce fuel burn and improve performance over state-of the-art designs; however, the increased complexity and highly coupled nature of these systems present challenges that require new control approaches. The SUbsonic Single Aft eNgine (SUSAN) Electrofan is a concept aircraft developed by NASA as a reference design for a commercial transport aircraft with a highly integrated hybrid-electric powertrain. This report summarizes the results of a hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) test of a control architecture developed for the SUSAN power/propulsion system (PPS). The test was performed in the Hybrid Propulsion Emulation Rig (HyPER) facility at the NASA Glenn Research Center and involved a real-time reference model of the SUSAN PPS and control system running with a subscale electromechanical system replacing one of the PPS subsystems. A side-by-side comparison of the simulated and real systems in the HIL test results shows that the control architecture functions well in both the simulation and the real-time HIL environment. In both cases, the controller is able to simultaneously deliver the required thrust response and balance power levels between the electrical and turbomachinery subsystems.