Submit to Energies Review for Energies Propose a Special Issue

Journal Browser

► Journal Browser

All-Electric Propulsion Technology for Electrified Aviation

Special Issue Editors
Special Issue Information
Keywords
Published Papers

A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "E: Electric Vehicles".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 August 2022) | Viewed by 9913

Share This Special Issue

Special Issue Editors

Dr. David Gerada

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Power Electronics, Machines and Control (PEMC) Group, Faculty of Engineering, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, UK
Interests: high speed traction machines; intensive cooling of electrical machines; novel material technology for electric machines; mechatronics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Prof. Dr. Chengming Zhang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Department of Electrical Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, No.92 West Dazhi Street, Harbin, China
Interests: electric/hybrid aircraft; energy control and management; electric machines
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The impact of human aviation activities on the environment is becoming more and more concerning. Passenger aircraft currently account for 2% of the world's CO₂ emissions while consuming 13% of fossil fuel burn within the transportation sector. By the 2050s, the proportion of air travel contributing to climate change is forecast to reach 6-10%. Prioritizing environmental protection, green aviation refers to the use of new fuels such as bio-aviation oil in aircraft, the improvement of intelligent manufacturing processes of high-performance composite materials, the adoption of harmless or low-harm new technologies, together with the development and use of high-efficiency, low-pollution or pollution-free propulsion systems.

This Special Issue will present research activities focused on the innovation of energy technologies and emission reduction technologies for multi-electric/all-electric aircraft, including electrical machines, power electronics, composite materials, propulsion architectures, as well as advanced manufacturing.

Dr. David Gerada
Dr. Chengming Zhang
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Energies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

Electric vehicles/air-ship/aircraft
Power Electronics and Electric Motors
Thermal Management and Optimization of All Electric Propulsion Systems
Battery, Energy Management Systems
High Temperature Superconductivity Technology
All Electric Propulsion System Architectures
Intelligent Transportation Systems, and Vehicle Security
Materials and Components for other Electrical Vehicles (Sea, Undersea, Air, and Space)
Modeling, Simulation, and Control
Codes, Standards, Policies, and Regulations for Aviation Electrification

Published Papers (5 papers)

Download All Papers

Research

22 pages, 11911 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Investigation of a 25 kV–50 Hz Railway-Substation Power Supply Based on a Back-to-Back Modular Multilevel Converter Topology

by Kevin Tournoux, Azeddine Houari, Mohamed Fouad Benkhoris, Franck Terrien and Pierre-Louis Garmier

Energies 2024, 17(6), 1318; https://doi.org/10.3390/en17061318 - 09 Mar 2024

Viewed by 524

Abstract

This paper presents a preliminary study of a 25 kV–50 Hz railway substation power supply system. The control of a back-to-back converter based on modular multilevel converter (MMC) technology was investigated to fit with the power quality requirements of the application. One of the main challenges is the presence of constraining load conditions, under which the train circulation variability, low-frequency harmonics and critical power transients can notably decrease the power quality and lead to instability. In order to address this, cascaded controllers based on resonant controllers are proposed to ensure the desired performance. Furthermore, balancing voltage algorithms are added to avoid stress phenomena and additional losses in the studied power conversion interface. The paper presents the design of the control stages and demonstrates the robust performance of the system using a realistic loading condition of a railway substation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue All-Electric Propulsion Technology for Electrified Aviation)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

13 pages, 4235 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Comparison of AC Losses in the Winding of Electrical Machines with Fixed Strands Positions, Fixed Conductor Shapes and Random Winding

by Anuvav Bardalai, David Gerada, Tianjie Zou, Michele Degano, Chengming Zhang and Chris Gerada

Energies 2022, 15(15), 5701; https://doi.org/10.3390/en15155701 - 05 Aug 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2047

Abstract

In high performance electric machines, the increase of fundamental frequency leads to additional losses in the winding due to parasitic effects such as the associated skin and proximity effects. In the first part, this paper presents an investigation into accurate modelling of AC losses in the winding using numerical methods and their experimental verification. Then, using experimental motorette setups, this research provides a comparative study between fixed strand positioning and fixed conductor shapes on the AC losses in the winding. It is shown that the exact position of strands in the conductor is not a critical factor; however, it is very important to control the conductor shape inside the slot. In the final section of this paper, an investigation into the relationship between AC losses in the winding and copper filling factor is presented. It is shown experimentally that counter-intuitive design choices such as using a lower copper fill factor and thicker strand diameters may be beneficial in achieving the highest overall efficiency. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue All-Electric Propulsion Technology for Electrified Aviation)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

16 pages, 4798 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Design and Analysis of a Permanent Magnet Vernier Machine with Non-Uniform Tooth Distribution

by Fei Zhao, Mengzhu Cao, Encheng Tao and Liyi Li

Energies 2021, 14(22), 7816; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14227816 - 22 Nov 2021

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2295

Abstract

To improve the torque performance of the permanent magnet vernier machine in the direct-drive system for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), this paper proposes the topology of non-uniform tooth distribution. This distribution, considering the additional flux harmonics, aims to contribute to torque improvement, whereas the cogging torque also increases at the same time. A phasors method is proposed to solve the issue caused by the non-uniform structure, adjusting the mechanic angle of each tooth reasonably to restrict the cogging torque. In addition, the non-uniform design is illustrated in detail, which includes the method of grouping the teeth, considering the factors of series pole ratio and winding layout. By using the three-dimensional finite element method, torque is significantly increased without additional torque ripple, which satisfies the desired design target. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue All-Electric Propulsion Technology for Electrified Aviation)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

19 pages, 7441 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Magnetic FEA Direct Optimization of High-Power Density, Halbach Array Permanent Magnet Electric Motors

by Jean-Michel Grenier, Ramón Pérez, Mathieu Picard and Jérôme Cros

Energies 2021, 14(18), 5939; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14185939 - 18 Sep 2021

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2392

Abstract

Hybrid electric aero-propulsion requires high power-density electric motors. The use of a constrained optimization method with the finite element analysis (FEA) is the best way to design these motors and to find the best solutions which maximize the power density. This makes it possible to take into account all the details of the geometry as well as the non-linear characteristics of magnetic materials, the conductive material and the current control strategy. Simulations were performed with a time stepping magnetodynamic solver while taking account the rotor movement and the stator winding was connected by an external electrical circuit. This study describes the magnetic FEA direct optimization approach for the design of Halbach array permanent magnet synchronous motors (PMSMs) and its advantages. An acceptable compromise between precision and computation time to estimate the electromagnetic torque, iron losses and eddy current losses was found. The finite element simulation was paired with analytical models to compute stress on the retaining sleeve, aerodynamic losses, and copper losses. This type of design procedure can be used to find the best machine configurations and establish design rules based on the specifications and materials selected. As an example, optimization results of PM motors minimizing total losses for a 150-kW application are presented for given speeds in the 2000 rpm to 50,000 rpm range. We compare different numbers of poles and power density between 5 kW/kg and 30 kW/kg. The choice of the number of poles is discussed in the function of the motor nominal speed and targeted power density as well as the compromise between iron losses and copper losses. In addition, the interest of having the current-control strategy as an optimization variable to generate a small amount of flux weakening is clearly shown. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue All-Electric Propulsion Technology for Electrified Aviation)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

16 pages, 2190 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Compensation of Interpolation Error for Look-Up Table-Based PMSM Control Method in Maximum Power Control

by Do-Yun Kim and Jung-Hyo Lee

Energies 2021, 14(17), 5526; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14175526 - 04 Sep 2021

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1753

Abstract

This paper proposes a compensation method for interpolation error of the maximum power control of a PMSM control system that generates current commands through a look-up table. A torque control system using a look-up table created through experiments has superior characteristics, such as control stability and torque accuracy, compared to a system that executes torque control via a linear controller based on modeling. However, it is impossible to generate information on all the currents for the output torque in the table. Therefore, because the data stored in the look-up table have a discrete characteristic, they are linearly interpolated to generate a current command for the torque command. However, the PMSM current trajectory is generally elliptical, which causes an error owing to linear interpolation, reducing the maximum output power. In particular, when the table data are insufficient, such as in the high-speed operation range, the reduced maximum output cannot be ignored. This paper proposes a compensation method for the interpolation error using two feedforward compensators and a PI controller, which was verified through experiments. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue All-Electric Propulsion Technology for Electrified Aviation)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

Journal Menu

Journal Browser

All-Electric Propulsion Technology for Electrified Aviation

Share This Special Issue

Special Issue Editors

Special Issue Information

Keywords

Published Papers (5 papers)

Research

Further Information

Guidelines

MDPI Initiatives

Follow MDPI