Super/ultra capacitor based energy storage system in more electric aircraft

Abstract

This research looks into the electrical supply system of a modern aircraft. As technology is becoming more advanced, the aviation industry has taken advantage of such advancement. This could be seen in aircraft designs which used to be highly mechanical in nature to the current heavy incorporation of electronics. Such aircrafts are categorized as a More Electric Aircraft (MEA). The purpose of this research is to study and understand the selection process in the choices made by aircraft manufacturers when designing aircrafts. An aircraft will be used as reference and its emergency electrical bus segment containing the battery and converter will be studied. An array of the possible components and circuits for the electrical emergency bus will be considered. A choice will then be made based on their compatibility with the referenced aircraft specifications. The pros, cons and challenges in the selection process will be describe in this paper. It is found that Lithium Ion batteries are the most compatible and that simple circuitry for the converters are not compatible due to its design restrictions. More detailed findings and results will be explained in this paper.