Control, Design and Optimization of Electrical Power Systems for More Electric Aircraft

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The research area of More-Electric Aircraft (MEA) looks into the utilization of electrical power generated by the propulsion engines to power the non-propulsive systems on-board the aircraft. Some examples of non-propulsive power generators on aircraft are hydraulic power, pneumatic power, mechanical power and electrical power systems.Currently aircraft such as the Boeing 787 have hybrid power systems, but each component of the electrical system is locally optimised according to the manufacture specification, and also Boeing specifications. Although this works in practise, it's not going to be giving the best performance as a whole. A component which is locally optimised should work very well in its own regard, but including many locally optimised sub-systems then interference, power loss, harmonic distortions... (and the list carries on) begins to effect the overall performance of the system. Having many of these locally optimised devices in a single system therefore increases the overall effect of the performance impeding characteristics observed. Therefore, developing an electrical system with full optimisation for all sub-systems should in theory improve performance significantly.This research project should explore the advantages and barriers for conducting an integrated design, for which all sub-system interractions are accounted for, for which whole system has been optimised as a whole. As such a design is intended for aircraft applications, design and optimisation of such a system must have concideration of overall weight, power quality, fail-safes and safety.The long term goal of this research is to show aircraft manufactures the advantages of incorporating a fully optimised system into commercial aircraft, like current research into MEA had led to the development of the B787. This would lead companies to manufacture and install electrical systems as a single optimised system other than purchasing many locally optimised sub-systems and putting them together. The benefits from this research could result in even more efficient aircraft, where the world is trying to reduce carbon emissions as a whole; increase the possible range of aircraft as a direct result in reduction of overall weight of aircraft a reduction in fuel burn of the jet engines; increased reliability of aircraft as redundancy of failure in electrical equipment is less than that for mechanical and hydraulic redundancy, including also the fact that electronic components are year on year having improved failure rates. All these factors will also result in reductions in operational and maintenance costs. This, then to the consumer could result in lower fares for longer distance travel.