Technical Review of Dual Inverter Topologies for More Electric Aircraft Applications

Huang, Zhen; Yang, Tao; Giangrande, Paolo; Galea, Michael; Wheeler, Patrick

Abstract

Electric drives are an essential part of more electric aircraft (MEA) applications with ever-growing demands for high power density, high performance, and high fault-tolerant capability. High-speed motor drives can fulfil those needs, but their speeds are subject to the relatively low DC-link voltage adopted by MEA. The power inverters are thus expected to efficiently and effectively manage that limited voltage. A recently popular topology is represented by the dual inverters. They are featured by inherited fault tolerance, a high DC-link voltage utilization and an excellent output power profile. This paper aims to present a comprehensive review of different structures based on the dual inverter. To meet the stringent requirements of MEA applications, three performance aspects, including the voltage utilization, the inverter output quality and the fault-tolerant capability, are selected. Based on the chosen performance metrics, the key features of adopting dual inverter topologies against other converter selections are explicitly demonstrated. Finally, a practical guideline for choosing suitable dual inverters for different MEA applications is provided.

Citation

Huang, Z., Yang, T., Giangrande, P., Galea, M., & Wheeler, P. (2021). Technical Review of Dual Inverter Topologies for More Electric Aircraft Applications. IEEE Transactions on Transportation Electrification, 8(2), 1966 - 1980. https://doi.org/10.1109/tte.2021.3113606

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Sep 14, 2021
• Online Publication Date: Sep 16, 2021
• Publication Date: Sep 16, 2021
• Deposit Date: Oct 29, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 29, 2021
• Journal: IEEE Transactions on Transportation Electrification
• Electronic ISSN: 2332-7782
• Publisher: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 8
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 1966 - 1980
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/tte.2021.3113606
• Keywords: Electrical and Electronic Engineering; Energy Engineering and Power Technology; Transportation; Automotive Engineering
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/6544111
• Publisher URL: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9540597
• Additional Information: © 2021 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.