A Multiport Power Conversion System for the More Electric Aircraft

Gu, Chunyang; Yan, Hao; Yang, Jiajun; Sala, Giacomo; De Gaetano, Daniele; Wang, Xuchen; Galassini, Alessandro; Degano, Michele; Zhang, Xin; Buticchi, Giampaolo

Abstract

In more electric aircraft (MEA), weight reduction and energy efficiency constitute the key figures. In addition, the safety and continuity of operation of its electrical power distribution system (EPDS) are of critical importance. These sets of desired features are in disagreement with each other because higher redundancy, needed to guarantee the safety of operation, implies additional weight. In fact, EPDS is usually divided into isolated sections that need to be sized for the worst case scenario. Several concepts of EPDS have been investigated, aiming at enabling the power exchange among separate sections, which allows better optimization for power and weight of the whole system. In this article, an approach based on the widespread use of multiport power converters for both dc/dc and dc/ac stages is proposed. System integration of these two is proposed as a multiport power conversion system (MPCS), which allows a ring power distribution, while galvanic isolation is still maintained, even in fault conditions. Thus, the redundancy of MEA is established by no significant weight increase. A machine design analysis shows how the segmented machine could offer superior performance to the traditional one with the same weight. Simulation and experimental verifications show the system feasibility in both normal and fault operations.

Citation

Gu, C., Yan, H., Yang, J., Sala, G., De Gaetano, D., Wang, X., …Buticchi, G. (2020). A Multiport Power Conversion System for the More Electric Aircraft. IEEE Transactions on Transportation Electrification, 6(4), 1707-1720. https://doi.org/10.1109/TTE.2020.3019446

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 15, 2020
• Online Publication Date: Aug 25, 2020
• Publication Date: 2020-12
• Deposit Date: Jan 7, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 7, 2021
• Journal: IEEE Transactions on Transportation Electrification
• Electronic ISSN: 2332-7782
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 6
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 1707-1720
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/TTE.2020.3019446
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/5008761
• Publisher URL: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9177094
• Additional Information: © 2020 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes,creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.