C4.2 - Reliable, Efficient and Lightweight Electric Propulsion Drive Systems with Distributed Energy Supply

The design of an electric propulsion system for civil aircraft has to pursue a multitude of objectives. In first place, a high reliability must be achieved according to aircraft safety requirements. Additionally, low weight and high efficiency are crucial to achieve as low as possible take-off weight. While weight transforms directly into power density of the propulsion drive system, efficiency is of high importance because of the associated additional energy storage weight to cover the losses. Depending on the mission, this can be of higher importance than the weight of the propulsion system itself. This project aims to investigate the trade-offs between reliability, efficiency and power density. Furthermore, the theoretical findings will be underlain with experimental investigations, also embedded in the “decentral” Electric Aircraft Ground Lab Environment (E²AGLE). Finally, based on these investigations, a methodology for the holistic design of an electric propulsion system for civil aircraft will be provided.

Project Objectives

Investigation of multi phase, multi level electric drive train concepts
regarding efficiency, power density and reliability
Basic experiments on the potential of phase change cooling
Prediction of harmonic losses in inverter-fed machines in order to
consider these in the optimization process of the drive system
Reliable operation strategies for electric drive trains considering different options for the no. of phases
Validation of proposed power electronics concepts
Design methodology for electric drive trains in all-electric-aircraft

Project Lead

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Axel Mertens

+49 511 762 2471
mertens(at)ial.uni-hannover.de

Organization

Institute for Drive Systems and Power Electronics

Leibniz Universität Hannover
Welfengarten 1
30167 Hannover

Project Details

Y. Cao, H. Lyu and A. Mertens, "Mission profile-based operation strategies to improve the reliability of an ANPC inverter in future electrified aircraft propulsion systems," 2024 IEEE Transportation Electrification Conference and Expo (ITEC), Chicago, IL, USA, 2024, pp. 1-8, doi: 10.1109/ITEC60657.2024.10598878

R. J. Keuter, F. Niebuhr, M. Nozinski, E. Krüger, S. Kabelac, B. Ponick, "Design of a Direct-Liquid-Cooled Motor and Operation Strategy for the Cooling System," in Energies 2023, 16, 5319. 10.3390/en16145319

R. J. Keuter, B. Kirsch, J. Friedrichs and B. Ponick, "Design Decisions for a Powertrain Combination of Electric Motor and Propeller for an Electric Aircraft," in IEEE Access, vol. 11, pp. 79144-79155, 2023, doi: 10.1109/ACCESS.2023.3299816

J. Ebersberger, R. J. Keuter, B. Ponick and A. Mertens, "Power Distribution and Propulsion System for an All-Electric Regional Aircraft," 2023 IEEE International Conference on Electrical Systems for Aircraft, Railway, Ship Propulsion and Road Vehicles & International Transportation Electrification Conference (ESARS-ITEC), Venice, Italy, 2023, pp. 1-7, doi: 10.1109/ESARS-ITEC57127.2023.10114868.

L. Fauth, J. Ebersberger, Y. Cao and J. Friebe, "Advantages of a Variable Board Supply Voltage in All-Electric Aircraft with Regard to Cosmic Radiation Induced Failures," 2023 IEEE International Conference on Electrical Systems for Aircraft, Railway, Ship Propulsion and Road Vehicles & International Transportation Electrification Conference (ESARS-ITEC), Venice, Italy, 2023, pp. 1-6, doi: 10.1109/ESARS-ITEC57127.2023.10114811.

R. J. Keuter, S. P. Melo, P. K. Jois, F. Cerdas, C. Herrmann and B. Ponick, "Investigation of Electric Motors For All-Electric Aircraft with Different Material Combinations from an Environmental Perspective," 2023 IEEE International Conference on Electrical Systems for Aircraft, Railway, Ship Propulsion and Road Vehicles & International Transportation Electrification Conference (ESARS-ITEC), Venice, Italy, 2023, pp. 1-6, doi: 10.1109/ESARS-ITEC57127.2023.10114860.

Y. Cao, L. Fauth, R. Keuter, A. Sanwongwanich, M. Novak, F. Blaabjerg, B. Ponick and A.Mertens, "Inverter design for future electrified aircraft propulsion systems under consideration of wear-out failure and random failure," 2023 25th European Conference on Power Electronics and Applications (EPE'23 ECCE Europe), Aalborg, Denmark, 2023, doi: 10.23919/EPE23ECCEEurope58414.2023.10264306.

J. Ebersberger et al., "Power Distribution and Propulsion System for an All-Electric Short-Range Commuter Aircraft—A Case Study," in IEEE Access, vol. 10, pp. 114514-114539, 2022, doi: 10.1109/ACCESS.2022.3217650.

J. Ebersberger, M. Hagedorn, M. Lorenz and A. Mertens, "Potentials and Comparison of Inverter Topologies for Future All-Electric Aircraft Propulsion," in IEEE Journal of Emerging and Selected Topics in Power Electronics, vol. 10, no. 5, pp. 5264-5279, Oct. 2022, doi: 10.1109/JESTPE.2022.3164804.

Y. Cao, L. Fauth, J. Friebe and A. Mertens, "Potentials to Improve the Post-Fault Performance of a Fault-Tolerant Inverter System in Electrified Aircraft Propulsion System," 2022 24th European Conference on Power Electronics and Applications (EPE'22 ECCE Europe), Hanover, Germany, 2022, pp. 1-8, https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9907673.

R. J. Keuter and B. Ponick, "First Step to Optimum Rotor Design for E-Motors with High Power Density for Aircraft Propulsion," 2022 25th International Conference on Electrical Machines and Systems (ICEMS), Chiang Mai, Thailand, 2022, pp. 1-6, doi: 10.1109/ICEMS56177.2022.9982946.

Y. Cao, L. Fauth, A. Mertens and J. Friebe, "Comparison and Analysis of Multi-State Reliability of Fault-Tolerant Inverter Topologies for the Electric Aircraft Propulsion System," 2021 24th International Conference on Electrical Machines and Systems (ICEMS), Gyeongju, Korea, Republic of, 2021, pp. 766-771, doi: 10.23919/ICEMS52562.2021.9634654.

J. Ebersberger, J. -K. Müller and A. Mertens, "Dynamic Characterization of a SiC-MOSFET Half Bridge in Hard- and Soft-Switching and Investigation of Current Sensing Technologies," 2020 22nd European Conference on Power Electronics and Applications (EPE'20 ECCE Europe), Lyon, France, 2020, pp. P.1-P.8, doi: 10.23919/EPE20ECCEEurope43536.2020.9215599.