I-Corps: High frequency propulsors for hybrid-electric airplanes

University Of Illinois At Urbana-Champaign, Urbana IL

Investigators

Abstract

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is to enable widespread adoption of electric and hybrid-electric aircraft that can help reduce the growing fuel needs and carbon impact the global aviation industry. With studies showing that commercial transport aircraft with electric propulsion can substantially reduce the mission fuel burn, many commercial efforts have recently been launched to develop more efficient hybrid-electric airplanes. The high specific power electrical machines and drives being pursued in this project can significantly alter system level trades of weight versus efficiency and improve the technical and commercial viability of these vehicles. These technologies have the potential to help the aerospace industry achieve the ambitious goals that have been set for the next three generations of commercial transport aircraft, and ensure US leadership of the industry. This I-Corps project is focused on determining the commercial potential of a new class of high frequency, high power-to-weight ratio electrical machines for weight sensitive applications like electric and hybrid electric aircraft. Power converters based on wide band-gap power electronic devices are used to drive the operating frequency of the machine to about ten times current values, leading to a significant reduction in the need for heavy metals in the electric motor. A set of computationally efficient multi-physics models for this type of machines, incorporating coupled electromagnetic and thermal effects, has been developed within a prior NSF-funded program. These models have been embedded within a rapid optimization scheme and used to generate machine designs with very high power-to-weight ratios, attaining values that have been identified by the industry as a threshold for wide-spread adoption of hybrid electric propulsion in commercial aircraft. In addition to weight reduction, this class of machines have electrical and mechanical features that are quite different from currently available machines. Through the I-Corps program the team will work to understand the full set of customer requirements and the value added by flight-weight, megawatt scale electric motors to the economics of the complete aircraft.