AEGART

AIRCRAFT ELECTRICAL GENERATION SYSTEM WITH ACTIVE RECTIFICATION AND HEALTH MONITORING

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'The project aims for an innovative solution for an aircraft electrical starter-generation system. The driver behind the project is the move towards green more-efficient aircraft technology by employing electric power to eventually replace conventional hydraulic and pneumatic power. Increased weight of green aircraft systems based on existing electrical aircraft components may offset savings due to higher efficiency. The electrical generation system incurs the largest weight increase when moving towards more-electric aircraft and this is a major challenge. Within the project this challenge will be addressed by the development a novel generation system comprising the electrical machine, the power electronic converter, the associated cooling system, and the control with health monitoring functions that enable the system to function safely and reliably as a starter/generator system for a small aircraft. An integrated design and modelling approach will provide an overall optimised solution that will reduce component count and maintenance cost, improve system reliability and save weight, thus improving the environmental impact of aircraft operations'

Introduzione (Teaser)

Recent technological advances in the power electronics, electric drives and control electronics field have ushered in the era of 'more electric aircraft'. EU-funded scientists are seeking to decrease starter-generator weight to improve both ecological and economic performance.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

The European aircraft industry has committed to revolutionise energy systems on-board aircraft through gradual replacement of hydraulic, pneumatic and mechanical power with electricity. Unfortunately, implementation of this concept using conventional components revealed that the weight increase of more-electric aircraft offsets any savings offered by higher efficiency.

Scientists initiated the 'Aircraft electrical generation system with active rectification and health monitoring' (AEGART) project to develop a novel system that should result in considerable starter-generator weight saving, without compromising aircraft safety and reliability. The novel generation system will comprise the electrical machine, power electronic converter, the associated cooling system and the control with health-monitoring functions.

Important part of work will be geared towards optimising machine design by introducing an active converter, particularly for starting-mode operation. Scientists will carefully address machine efficiency and losses, torque density, thermal dissipation and cooling arrangements. Compared to current autotransformer-rectifier units, this converter will increase power-conversion efficiency and eliminate the need for passive filters, thus reducing the starter-generator system weight.

By providing fault-tolerant starter-generator system design and developing health-monitoring techniques, the project will ensure system safety and reduce the total weight and volume.

Project members have already outlined the system requirements and specifications. Based on them, a number of starter-generator system topologies have been identified and technical details have been analysed.

All system components have been designed. The project team developed advanced control strategies to minimise machine current in the starting mode and machine flux per required torque in the generating mode.

Project findings will present a significant step beyond the state of the art in aircraft alternator design, power-conversion systems and their thermal management. Significant weight and cost savings could be achieved in future more-electric aircraft with reliable, effective, safe and low-maintenance operation of the electrical generator.