System Wide Reliability Impact of Power Converters in More-Electric Aircraft Applications

Abstract

<div class="section abstract"><div class="htmlview paragraph">The continued electrification of aircraft is required such that ambitious decarbonisation targets can be met. A significant challenge presented with this trend is the increased reliance on electrical systems to perform flight-critical operations in a manner that has not been seen in previous generations of aircraft. The power electronic converter is a key enabling technology in aircraft electrification. Its prevalence is such that the failure rate of flight critical-loads is closely linked with that of the associated power electronic converters. As such, there is a clear need to better understand the impact of improvements in both the reliability and failure estimation of novel power electronic converters at a systems level in future aerospace applications. Accordingly, this paper presents key highlights from literature on power converter research, summarising advances in reliability-enhancing features and more accurate Physics-of-Failure modelling methods. Simulation studies are then presented, which explore the impact of component-level advancements in power converters on the system-level failure rates and power system architecture configurations of flight-critical loads in more-electric aircraft applications.</div></div>

Flight-Critical Load Failure Analysis in HVDC More-Electric Aircraft Applications

“…The calculated probabilities all provide a good degree of margin over the minimum required 10 -9 probability requirement. When this is compared with the analysis in [6], it can be seen that the HVAC EPS offers superior probability of failure for selected flight-critical electrical loads. This can be attributed to the additional layer of load redundancy in HVAC architecture.…”

“…In keeping with the analysis conducted of the Fig. 3: Reliability Block Diagram baseline AC/DC MEA EPS in [6], the rate of complete failure of the generic flight critical loads was evaluated (including failures of supply to these loads) using four separate failure rates for PEC subsystems within the EPS. These consisted of:…”

“…In the literature, roadmaps for reliable PEC topologies and the reliability-oriented design of PEC for aircraft applications are presented [4], [5]. In addition, authors in [6] present an initial study examining the sensitivity of a hybrid AC-DC Boeing 787-type architecture to reliability-enhancing features within PEC designs.…”

“…Accordingly, this paper presents a complementary study of the reliability of an equivalent High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) aircraft Electrical Power System (EPS) architecture, supplying flight-critical electrical loads, and considering the same range of PEC failure rates as [6]. The generated results will enable a direct comparison with the previous study in order to illustrate how the change of primary power distribution method impacts on the failure rates of flightcritical loads.…”

Transfer operation ride though control strategy of the aircraft power supply system with lithium battery energy storage

“…This research explores the potential involvement of energy storage in aircraft power supply system transfer operations during different flight periods and fault conditions. This paper utilizes lithium battery energy storage combined with a bidirectional DC/DC converter device to provide voltage support during power source transitions in the power supply system [10]. In normal operation, the energy storage device remains in standby mode.…”