Smart power control for aircraft

Through its ambitious Clean Sky Joint Technology Initiative, the EU is making great strides toward an all-electric aircraft (AEA) of high performance. Researchers have developed a smart control system to cope with the increase of electrical loads in the new power distribution architecture.

Energy

The EU launched Clean Sky to support public-private research partnerships in the field. The aim is to develop jointly a broad spectrum of innovative technologies devoted to a clean and competitive European air transport system. For the AEA flight tests coming on the heels of Clean Sky's first green flying demonstrations, an Italian consortium has conducted outstanding work on an electrical power centre (EPC). Developed within EPOCAL (EPOCAL: An electrical power center for aeronautical loads), EPC promises to optimise electrical power distribution. In AEA, conventional equipment that depends on pneumatic, mechanic and hydraulic power are substituted by equipment that depends on electrical power. This considerable growth of electrical loads in the new power distribution architecture could lead to instabilities as a result of interactions between the different equipment. The EPOCAL team introduced the use of solid-state power controllers (SSPCs) inside the EPC to maintain high voltage levels for reducing the current levels and to allow the use of wires of smaller section and weight. SSPCs enable smart power management as well as supervisory and diagnostic functions to identify overload and prevent short circuits. Firmware (a combination hardware and software) was developed specifically for monitoring the EPC. It enables configuration pretesting, real-time monitoring and energy management, as well as post-processing comparisons of predicted and measured values. EPOCAL scientists have also laid out the protocol for testing that consists of an initial qualification phase focusing on individual components followed by safety of flight tests of the complete system at a specialised laboratory for aeronautical devices validation. Testing of the new power control system covered different operating conditions and an overload scenario. The results confirmed the correctness of energy management algorithms and allowed EPOCAL researchers to be confident that the EPC will become a standard component of future AEA flying demonstrators. The EPOCAL technology is expected to enhance the safety and reliability of aircraft electrical systems. Moreover, its innovative concept for power management could find application in marine, rail and electric road vehicles.