Future aircrafts will be composed of high number of power converters having always higher power density and efficiency. In order to increase performance of such converters, a good option is the use of SiC transistors. Although these components reduce losses when compared to their silicon-based counterpart, they increase switching speed and overshoot during commutation, which can cause serious Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) issues and overvoltages on loads connected to these converters. For that reason, power module containing SiC transistors must have the lowest possible parasitic inductance. This paper presents a multilevel low-inductance SiC power module designed to optimize a three-phase 540V/15kVA inverter for modern aircrafts. Precise dynamic characterization is performed in order to accurately determine switching energies and to show improvement of loss performance of this power module when compared to discrete components and also to power modules from the market. Inverter input and output common mode current reduction due to integrated common mode capacitor in the power module is experimentally shown.

International audienceThis article proposes a fast strategy for optimal dispatching of power flows in a microgrid with storage. The investigated approach is based on the use of standard mixed integer linear programming (MILP) algorithm in association with a coarse linear model of the microgrid. The resulting computational time is compatible with simulations over long periods of time allowing the integration of seasonal and stochastic features related to renewable energies. By using this fast scheduling strategy over a complete year of simulation, the microgrid cost effectiveness is considered. Finally, a sensitivity analysis is carried out in order to identify the most influent parameters that should be considered in a sizing loop. Different microgrid configurations are also investigated and compared in terms of cost-effectiveness

In this paper, the Integrated Optimal Design (IOD) approach for energetic system design is discussed. IOD aims at concurrently optimizing the architecture, the element sizing and the energy management in an energetic system. IOD leads to complex optimization problems (typically mixed variable problems with several constraints and multiple objectives) which can be solved with direct optimization methods. We illustrate the interest of this approach through the design of a hybrid environmentally friendly locomotive moved by four DC motors supplied by a diesel engine generator in association with electric storage elements (batteries and ultracapacitors).

This paper presents the integrated optimal design of the powertrain of a hybrid regional aircraft using multidisciplinary design optimization (MDO). The sizing of the main components of the propulsion chain is performed over the flight mission under various scenarios regarding energy management strategies and technological assessments. For that purpose, a complete set of multidisciplinary surrogate models are integrated into the MDO process, taking account not only of the main electrical, thermal and mechanical aspects but also of environmental constraints such as partial discharges in electric motors regarding flight conditions. Several MDO formulations are investigated comparing local (i.e., motor mass minimization) and global optimizations (i.e., powertrain mass then fuel burn minimization at aircraft level). Results emphasize main systemic couplings showing that despite future technological progress, the series hybrid architecture is heavier than a conventional thermal aircraft. Nevertheless, thanks to the whole aircraft optimization, potential gains related to kerosene consumption can be reached, reducing the environmental footprint. The “energy gains” focused on in this paper may be added with aerodynamic gains potentially involved in more electric powertrain. This work has been carried out in the frame of the HASTECS project under the Clean Sky II program which aims at reducing CO₂ emissions and environmental impacts of the aviation sector.

More and more electric systems are embedded in today aircraft. As a result, the complexity of electrical power system design is increasing and the need of generic and efficient design methods is today required. Among numerous design tasks, the allocation of electric systems on the busbars of the electrical power system is considered as an important one since it has a direct impact on the aircraft mass. But due to the high number of possible allocations and regarding the large diversity of potential sizing cases for the equipments, finding the optimal allocation of electric loads is a hard task. In this paper, the problem is formalized mathematically. Then, four stochastic optimization methods are assessed on complex load allocation problems. Based on this assessment, a genetic algorithm using niching method is considered as the most appropriate algorithm for solving this aircraft design problem.