Environmental requirements have led the air transport industry to work for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and mechanical noise levels. Nowadays, this sector contributes with 2% of total emissions and there are demands from global aviation regulators to reduce this percentage. A growing strategy last years is the use of hybrid-electric propulsion systems, which combine internal combustion engines (ICE), for example gas turbines (GT) or reciprocating engines, with electric motors (EM), benfiting of inherent advantages of both. A hybrid-electric propulsion system compared with conventional ICE-powered systems has greater energy efficiency, increased operating safety, and can even supply with power to aircraft electrical devices. The development of this area is multidisciplinary in nature and therefore presents challenges in various areas such as: ICE, EM, electronic converters, propeller design, monitoring and control systems, management and supervision systems, energy efficiency and optimization, aerodynamics and mechanical design. A project aimed at the characterization of hybrid-electric aircraft propulsion, and the construction of a prototype is underway in Brazil. The system studied is composed of a GT, an EM, three electronic converters, a battery bank and a propeller. It will perform three operating topologies: series, pure-electric and turbo-electric. A test bench with the necessary peripheral and analysis infrastructure is under construction. This paper aims to: (i) develop and present the simplified test bench components model, (ii) given a mission profile, develop an energy management computing code to determine the optimal degree of hybridization for each phase of flight and present the results, and (iii) simulate and validate various operating alternatives. The results highlight the limitations of some system components, the need to optimize some technologies involved, especially in terms of power density, and demonstrate the validity of the management code to optimize hybrid system operation.


Energy Management of a Hybrid-Electric Aeronautical Propulsion System to Be Used in a Stationary Test Bench

Division / Sponsor:
International Gas Turbine Institute (IGTI)

Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/GT/GT2020/volume/84058

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