Recent Technologies and Control Methods for Electric Power Systems in More Electric Aircrafts: A Review

Abstract

This paper is aimed at discussing the current trends in the design of Electric Power Systems (EPS) architectures which are intended to be implemented in More Electric Aircrafts (MEAs). Various EPS architectures such as HVAC, HVDC, hybrid HVAC/HVDC etc are studied and compared. Various control techniques which are implemented in order to control the EPS are also reviewed and they are compared on the basis of power quality, ease of installation and maintenance, possibility of future expansion of EPS, need of active power filters and so on. On the basis of the evaluation of various EPS architectures, the need of fuel cell installation in the EPS to be used for MEAs is explained and various ways to incorporate the fuel cell in the said EPS are discussed. Further the need of DC to DC converters in the power grid of a MEA is discussed and various possible choices for the topologies of DC to DC converters are compared on the basis of the parameters such as efficiency, transient response, reliability, electromagnetic emissions, size, weight and so on. Moreover, various controllers such as PI controller, PID controller, Sliding Mode Controller etc which can be used for a closed loop control of DC to DC converters are discussed.