Henry VIII
11th Dec 2016, 21:06
A colleague reports that FADEC considers starter time limitation, but no paper evidence received
E.g. With starter maximum continuous operation 5 min, if engine does not light up the FADEC closes the start valve after 5 min. to protect the starter
Can anybody kindly offer clarification on the matter ?
tdracer
13th Dec 2016, 04:08
Henry, I was waiting for someone with Airbus expertise to answer, but since that hasn't happened...
This is a Boeing point of view, but all the autostart systems I'm familiar with have some sort of starter duty cycle protection (five minutes being normal). For fail to light, typical ground start sequence is something like this:
Fuel ON, single ignition - if no EGT rise with some time period (20 or 30 seconds), cut fuel, motor to clear fuel for X seconds (~20 seconds), Fuel ON, dual ignition - if no EGT rise with same time period as above, cut fuel, motor to clear fuel, try a third time with dual ignition - if no light cut fuel, motor for a final 30 seconds, close the starter air valve and put up the Autostart message.
I'd be mildly surprised if Airbus does it significantly different (especially since the engine company is really responsible for the autostart logic).