Airbus aspires to make all-electric regional aircraft by 2050, to maintain its leading technological and environmental credentials, which are central to its competitive advantage. This goal is extremely challenging, especially for energy storage: replacing the current requirement for 30 kg of kerosene per passenger with existing battery technology would introduce an additional 1000 kg/passenger. Structural power composites provide one possible solution: in this concept, the existing fabric of the aircraft structure is made multifunctional, fulfilling both mechanical demands and providing electrical energy storage, simultaneously. By using the same mass for two traditionally disparate functions, considerable weight savings can be obtained; specifically, the potential to make secondary structures or interior parts from structural power materials is very appealing. Furthermore, Airbus has more than 30,000 kg of cables on an A380 aircraft. Distributed energy storage in the airframe and interiors, as well as materials with an intrinsic cable functionality, offer potentially significant weight and volume reductions to the system. With the development of structural power composites in SORCERER, we offer the aircraft industry a stepping-stone for realisation of ‘massless’ energy storage for future aircraft.
The overall objective of the proposed project SORCERER is to advance structural power materials such that they can start to be adopted in Large Passenger Aircraft (LPA), as set out in the call JTI-CS2-2016-CFP03-LPA-02-11 Structural Energy Storage and Power Generation Functionalities in Multifunctional Composite Structures.
There were three overarching objectives of SORCERER:
Regarding Objective 1 (Structural Battery), a demonstrator was delivered, which consisted of three multifunctional cells within a composite laminate (370 x 120 x 1.1mm) which had a flexural modulus of 4.3 GPa and a voltage of 9.2V.
Regarding Objective 2 (Structural Energy Generation), the concept of morphing and the potential for energy harvesting was demonstrated, but the final device was not completed by the end of the project.
Regarding Objective 3 (Structural Supercapacitor), a prototype, consisting of structural supercapacitors of CNT fibre veils, with a polymer electrolyte, were encapsulated in a CFRP laminate with a GFRP skin by IMDEA. An array of 16 supercapacitors was assembled, and demonstrated to provide an energy buffer (200 ms distruption of power). At the end of the project Imperial College had manufactured cells (A5 size), for a cabin door demonstrator, with the final component consisting of a C-beam with eight cells in the web.
