Towards Zero Emissions Electric Aircraft through Superconducting DC Distribution Network

航空电气化将是实现减少碳排放、燃料燃烧和噪音的雄心勃勃的环境目标的核心。英国2050年航空战略制定了目标，以确保安全可靠的出行方式，在支持增长的同时应对环境影响。目前一个改变游戏规则的概念是氢动力电动飞机。空中客车ZEROe概念飞机使研究氢技术成为可能，这些技术将塑造未来的零排放飞机。多兆瓦级的大型氢能电动飞机对机载电网的功率密度和效率有很高的要求。液氢为电力网络提供了低温环境，这为超导的使用打开了新的机会。低温超导直流配电网络具有效率高、功率密度大、对飞机整体重量影响小等优点，是发展大型氢动力电动飞机的关键一步。该联谊会旨在通过开发第一个可靠的高功率密度和高效率的低温和超导直流配电网络，为大型氢动力电动飞机的发展做出重要贡献。低温和超导直流配电网络因其高功率密度、高效率和对飞机整体重量的影响而备受关注。该奖学金将满足超导直流配电网络的高要求的安全和可靠性要求，这是确保向飞行关键负荷供电并使供电能够从任何故障条件下安全恢复所必需的。它将通过一种新颖的、强大的数值和实验相结合的方法来实现这一点，以提供第一个与超导故障电流限制器(SFCL)相结合的低温混合直流断路器。通过与空中客车、ATI FlyZero、IXYS UK Westcode Ltd.和曼彻斯特大学的合作，一种用于控制和保护大型氢动力电动飞机的超导直流配电网络的开创性方法将被证明是使该技术适用于未来商业零排放和低噪音电动飞机的重要途径。

Electrification of aviation will be central to achieve ambitious environmental targets for the reduction of carbon emission, fuel burn and noise. The UK Aviation Strategy 2050 sets out objectives to ensure a safe and secure way to travel, support growth while tackling environmental impacts. A current game-changing concept is hydrogen-powered electric aircraft. Airbus ZEROe concept aircraft enables investigation of hydrogen technologies that will shape the future zero-emission aircraft. Large-scale hydrogen-powered electric aircraft of multi-megawatt level have very high requirements on power density and efficiency of the on-board electric network. Liquid hydrogen offers a cryogenic environment for the electric network, which opens new opportunities for the use of superconductivity. A cryogenic and superconducting direct current (DC) distribution network is a key step for the development of large-scale hydrogen-powered electric aircraft due to its high efficiency, high-power density, and reduced impact on the overall weight of the aircraft. The Fellowship aims to make an important contribution towards the development of large-scale hydrogen-powered electric aircraft by developing the first reliable high-power density and high efficiency cryogenic and superconducting DC distribution network. A cryogenic and superconducting direct current (DC) distribution network is attractive due to its high-power density, high efficiency, and reduced impact on the overall weight of the aircraft. This Fellowship will address the highly demanding safety and reliability requirements of the superconducting DC distribution network, necessary to ensure the supply to flight critical loads and to enable the safe recovery of the supply from any fault conditions. It will do so through a novel, powerful combination of numerical and experimental methods to deliver the first cryogenic hybrid DC circuit breaker combined with a superconducting fault current limiter (SFCL). By collaborating with Airbus, ATI FlyZero, IXYS UK Westcode Ltd., and University of Manchester, a pioneering method for the control and protection of the superconducting DC distribution network for large-scale hydrogen-powered electric aircraft will be demonstrated as a vital pathway to make the technology viable for future commercial zero emissions and low noise electric aircraft.