Understanding the impact of failure modes of cables for the design of turbo-electric distributed propulsion electrical power systems

Nolan, Steven; Jones, C. E.; Norman, Patrick; Galloway, Stuart

doi:10.1109/esars-itec.2016.7841363

Cited by 5 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…While a low impedance path can offer stability during faults and small overcurrent transients, the size of the former may introduce a significant weight and volume penalty. Another disadvantage of this design is that the low impedance provided by the cable could lead to other components on the network dissipating a larger proportion of fault energy [16]. This will require other system components to be overrated to withstand the higher fault currents, incurring size and weight penalties which have a large impact on the performance (weight and efficiency) of the aircraft.…”

Section: Cable Design Choicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Protection Requirements Capture for Superconducting Cables in TeDP Aircraft Using a Thermal-Electrical Cable Model

Nolan¹,

Jones²,

Norman³

et al. 2017

SAE Technical Paper Series

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Turbo-electric distributed propulsion (TeDP) for aircraft allows for the complete redesign of the airframe so that greater overall fuel burn and emissions benefits can be achieved. Whilst conventional electrical power systems may be used for smaller aircraft, large aircraft (~300 pax) are likely to require the use of superconducting electrical power systems to enable the required whole system power density and efficiency levels to be achieved. The TeDP concept requires an effective electrical fault management and protection system. However, the fault response of a superconducting TeDP power system and its components has not been well studied to date, limiting the effective capture of associated protection requirements. For example, with superconducting systems it is possible that a hotspot is formed on one of the components, such as a cable. This can result in one subsection, rather than all, of a cable quenching. The quench transition to normal conduction leads to a temperature rise which is not uniformly distributed along the cable length. Due to the high current density and low cable mass of a TeDP system, this damaging failure mode can occur over a short timescale. To improve the understanding of the formation of this failure mode and its impact on a TeDP distribution cable, this paper presents a transient thermal-electrical model based on numerical methods. Using this approach, the model is then used to provide new information supporting the capture of speed and sensitivity requirements for TeDP protection systems.

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Section: Cable Design Choicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Protection Requirements Capture for Superconducting Cables in TeDP Aircraft Using a Thermal-Electrical Cable Model

Nolan¹,

Jones²,

Norman³

et al. 2017

SAE Technical Paper Series

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“…In this paper, a full-scale system model was built in the Matlab -Simscape environment and the conventional copper cables are replaced with high temperature superconducting (HTS) cables. Previously HTS cables for electric aircraft have been modelled/characterized independently [13][14][15]. This paper for the first time presents the use of HTS cables in the full-scale system model of the turbo-electric aircraft and studies its impact on the fault current characteristics.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

DC Line to Line Short-Circuit Fault Management in a Turbo-Electric Aircraft Propulsion System Using Superconducting Devices

Venuturumilli

Berg

Prisse

et al. 2019

IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond.

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Electric aircraft has already become a reality, with demonstration flights at power ratings of less than 1 MVA. Conventional machines and distribution technologies suffer from poor power densities when scaling to large power demands, leading to significant challenges in applying this technology from small (<10seater) to large (>100-seater) planes. Superconducting devices could be an enabler for electric aviation due to their great potential for high efficiency and low weight. However, while the development of the superconducting components presents a significant challenge, the safe and effective combination of such components into a propulsion system also requires a significant area of research. For this purpose, a signal-based Matlab-Simscape model for a DC network architecture in a turbo-electric aircraft has been established and the highly nonlinear models for the superconducting devices have been developed and integrated. This network model has been used to understand the fault current magnitude and rise time, as well as the stability behavior of the system utilizing the realistic electro-thermal models of superconducting devices in it. The derived network was investigated for a bus bar short circuit fault using both superconducting fault current limiter (SFCL) and fault current limiting high temperature superconducting (FCL HTS) cable. Based on the network characteristics, a fault tolerant DC network design was achieved by utilizing the FCL HTS cables. Similarly, the operation limits of the protection devices have been reduced greatly using superconducting components.  Index Terms-Aircraft Propulsion, Fault tolerance, HTS cables, Power system faults, Short circuit currents, System engineering. I. INTRODUCTION URBO-ELECTRIC aircraft propulsion system is a novel idea [1], capable of realizing the emission standards set by the Flightpath 2050 [2]. Replacement of the conventional engines with electric propulsion motors was speculated to be the prom-Manuscript receipt and acceptance dates will be inserted here. This work was supported by Airbus Group Innovations.

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Steady and Transient State Analyses on Conjugate Laminar Forced Convection Heat Transfer

Afzal

Samee

Razak

et al. 2019

Arch Computat Methods Eng

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Understanding the impact of failure modes of cables for the design of turbo-electric distributed propulsion electrical power systems

Cited by 5 publications

References 18 publications

Protection Requirements Capture for Superconducting Cables in TeDP Aircraft Using a Thermal-Electrical Cable Model

Protection Requirements Capture for Superconducting Cables in TeDP Aircraft Using a Thermal-Electrical Cable Model

DC Line to Line Short-Circuit Fault Management in a Turbo-Electric Aircraft Propulsion System Using Superconducting Devices

Steady and Transient State Analyses on Conjugate Laminar Forced Convection Heat Transfer

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