SBIR Phase I: Fault-tolerant Drive for High-Power-Density Motors

这个小型企业创新研究第一阶段项目将证明为轻型电动飞机推进系统优化的高可靠性电机驱动器的可行性。去年，美国国家航空航天局（NASA）的绿色飞行挑战赛以每加仑汽油可搭载400名乘客的纯电动飞行证明了电动飞行的可行性，但针对这一市场的产品尚未上市。目前可用的电机驱动器将电力推进系统的可靠性限制在不可接受的低水平。这些驱动器是为地面车辆设计的，可靠性明显低于通用航空飞机。这些驱动器还需要重载电感器与最高功率密度的电动机接口。提出的新型驱动架构将提供高可靠性，并可直接与10 kW至250 kW范围内的低电感电机一起运行。来自商业航空工业的严格可靠性分析技术将应用于系统模型，以优化可靠性和功率密度的架构。该设计将通过制造和测试驱动器的单相在硬件上进行验证。该驱动器与先进的电机相结合，将形成具有最高功率密度和符合航空使用的可靠性水平的电动飞机推进系统。该项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是解决推进系统的发展市场，这将使小型飞机和无人机（UAV）领域的无污染和可靠的电动航空成为可能。无人机的使用正在迅速扩大。许多无人机的国内应用，如执法或测量可以由电动无人机服务。国会已经授权FAA将无人机整合到空域，但目前的无人机不具备与民用空域使用一致的可靠性水平。在燃油价格不断上涨和人们对环境的担忧日益加剧的时代，通用航空公司正将电动飞行视为降低运营成本和温室气体排放的一种方式。美国联邦航空局正在更新法规，以创建一类“电动轻型运动飞机”（eLSA），但没有商用电机驱动器达到通用航空的可靠性水平。该项目将结合严格的商用航空高可靠性电子设计技术和重型工业电机驱动的电力电子设计，创造一种轻型、容错和高可靠性的航空电机驱动。拟议的驱动器将具有与民用空域电动飞机运行一致的可靠性水平，同时仍保持卓越的功率密度。

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will prove the feasibility of a high reliability motor drive optimized for lightweight propulsion systems for electric aircraft. The NASA green flight challenge proved the viability of electric flight with a 400 passenger mile per gallon pure electric flight last year, but products specific to this market are not yet available. Presently available motor drives limit the reliability of electric propulsion system to unacceptably low levels. These drives are designed for ground vehicles and have reliability significantly less than general aviation planes. These drives also require heavy load inductors to interface with the highest power density electric motors. The novel drive architecture proposed will provide high reliability and operate directly with low inductance motors in the 10 kW to 250 kW range. Rigorous reliability analysis techniques from the commercial aviation industry will be applied to system models to optimize the architecture for reliability and power density. The design will be validated in hardware by fabricating and testing a single phase of the drive. This drive coupled with an advanced motor will form an electric aircraft propulsion system with the highest power density available and a reliability level consistent with aviation usage.The broader impact/commercial potential of this project is to address a developing market for propulsion systems that will enable non-polluting and reliable electric aviation in the small aircraft and Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) sectors. UAV use is expanding rapidly. Many domestic applications of UAVs such as law enforcement or surveying could be served by electric UAVs. Congress has mandated that the FAA integrate UAVs into the airspace, but present UAVs do not have reliability levels consistent with use in the civilian airspace. General aviation is looking to electric flight as a way to reduce operating costs and greenhouse emissions in an age of ever increasing fuel prices and concern for the environment. The FAA is updating regulations to create a class of "Electric Light Sport Aircraft" (eLSA), but no commercially available motor drives meet general aviation reliability levels. This project will combine rigorous commercial aviation high reliability electronics design techniques with power electronics designs from heavy industry motor drives to create an electric aviation motor drive that is lightweight, fault tolerant, and highly reliable. The proposed drive will have reliability levels consistent with operation of electric aircraft in the civilian airspace while still retaining exceptional power density.