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  • SE²A - Sustainable and Energy-Efficient Aviation
  • Research
  • ICA C "Energy Storage and Conversion"
Logo Sustainable and Energy Efficient Aviation of TU Braunschweig
C4.2 - Reliable, Efficient and Lightweight Electric Propulsion Drive Systems with Distributed Energy Supply
  • ICA C "Energy Storage and Conversion"
    • C1.1 - Design methods for aircraft energy supply systems
    • C2.2 - Integration Strategies for Power Composites in Aircraft Structures
    • C2.3 - Solid-state lithium-sulfur batteries with enhanced stability and structural integration for aviation
    • C3.1 - Functional 3D design and experimental validation of shape-adaptive fan blading
    • C3.3 - Synthetic Fuel Combustion for Aviation Application
    • C3.5 - Numerical investigations of synthetic fuel flames in aviation conditions
    • C3.6 - AICODE: Artificial Intelligence-enhanced Compressor Design
    • C4.1 - Reliable and Robust Electrical Power Conversion for Electrified Aircraft Propulsion Systems
    • C4.2 - Reliable, Efficient and Lightweight Electric Propulsion Drive Systems with Distributed Energy Supply
    • C5.1 - Total Thermal Management Design and Optimization
    • C5.2 - AER-X: Airbone Energy Recovery via vapor eXpansion
    • C5.3 - Cryogenic hydrogen exergy utilisation: Less heat rejection to ambient and more useable energy for propulsion
    • C6.1 - Data-driven understanding of aviation PEM fuel cells under reliability aspects
    • C6.2 - Design and (nano)engineering of PEMFC cathode catalyst layers to boost the efficiency and life-time under aviation conditions
    • C6.3 - DEFCA: Design-space evaluation of the air-, heat- and power-management of fuel cells for aviation
    • C6.4 - Robust and High-Density Fuel-Cell Systems
    • JRG-C3 - Fuel Cells for Aviation
    • C1.1 - Design methodology for aircraft energy supply systems
    • C2.1 - Fundamentals of ElectroFuel Synthesis for Aviation
    • C2.2 - Structural energy storage focussing on battery cells with load-bearing properties
    • C2.3 - Advanced lithium-sulfur battery concepts for aviation
    • C3.1: Multidisciplinary design of shape-adaptive compressor blading
    • C3.2: Adaptive High-Speed Compressors with optimized stage matching for flexible operation
    • C3.3: Synthetic Fuel Combustion for Aviation Application
    • C4.1 - Electric Propulsion Drive Concepts for Future Electrified Aircraft
    • C4.2 - Power Supply System for All Electric Aircraft
    • ⯇ back to research

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

Members
  • Prof. Dr.-Ing. Axel Mertens
  • Prof. Dr.-Ing. Bernd Ponick
  • Yongtao Cao
  • Janine Ebersberger
  • Eike Krüger
Publications

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.

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Cluster of Excellence SE²A –
Sustainable and Energy-Efficient Aviation
Technische Universität Braunschweig
Hermann-Blenk-Str. 42
38108 Braunschweig

se2a(at)tu-braunschweig.de
+49 531 391 66661

 

 

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