Towards Zero Emissions Electric Aircraft through Superconducting DC Distribution Network

航空电气化将是实现降低碳排放、燃油消耗和噪音等雄心勃勃的环境目标的核心。《英国航空战略2050》设定了确保安全出行、支持增长同时应对环境影响的目标。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概念飞机能够对氢技术进行研究，从而塑造未来的零排放飞机。数兆瓦级的大型氢动力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一个低温环境，这为超导性的使用开辟了新的机会。低温和超导直流（DC）配电网络是开发大型氢动力电动飞机的关键步骤，因为其效率高，功率密度高，并且对飞机整体重量的影响较小。该研究金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（DC）配电网络由于其高功率密度、高效率以及对飞行器的总重量的降低的影响而具有吸引力。该奖学金将解决超导直流配电网络的高要求的安全性和可靠性要求，这是确保向飞行关键负载供电并使任何故障条件下的供电安全恢复所必需的。它将通过一种新颖的，强大的数值和实验方法相结合，提供第一个低温混合直流断路器与超导故障限流器（SFCL）相结合。通过与空客、ATI FlyZero、IXYS UK Westcode Ltd.合作，与曼彻斯特大学合作，一种用于控制和保护大型氢动力电动飞机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.