Development of Megawatt-Scale Medium-Voltage High Efficiency High Power Density Power Converters for Aircraft Hybrid-Electric Propulsion Systems

Di Zhang, Jiangbiao He, Di Pan, Mark Dame, Michael Schutten

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

21 Scopus citations

Abstract

Hybrid-electric propulsion system is an enabling technology to make the aircrafts more fuel-saving, quieter, and lower carbide emission. In this paper, a megawatt-scale power converter based on a hybrid three-level active neutral-point-clamped (3L-ANPC) topology is developed. To achieve high efficiency, the switching devices operated at carrier frequency in the 3L-ANPC converter are configured by the emerging Silicon Carbide (SiC) Metal-Oxide Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistors (MOSFETs), while the conventional Silicon (Si) Insulated-Gate Bipolar Transistors (IGBTs) are selected for the switches modulated at the fundamental output frequency. The dc-bus voltage is increased from the conventional 270 V to 2.4 kV to reduce the power cable weight in the aircraft. Unlike the traditional 400 Hz aircraft electric systems, the rated fundamental output frequency of the inverter here is boosted to 1.4 kHz to drive the high-speed motor. Systematic hardware development and new PWM strategy for the 3L-ANPC inverter will be presented in this paper, and the associated experimental results are shown to verify the performance of this MW-scale medium-voltage inverter. It is shown that the 1-MW power inverter achieves an efficiency of99% and power density of 12 kVA/kg, which provides a promising solution to the realization of high-efficiency high-density aircraft hybrid propulsion systems.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication2018 AIAA/IEEE Electric Aircraft Technologies Symposium, EATS 2018
ISBN (Electronic)9781624105722
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 29 2018
Event2018 AIAA/IEEE Electric Aircraft Technologies Symposium, EATS 2018 - Cincinnati, United States
Duration: Jul 12 2018Jul 14 2018

Publication series

Name2018 AIAA/IEEE Electric Aircraft Technologies Symposium, EATS 2018

Conference

Conference2018 AIAA/IEEE Electric Aircraft Technologies Symposium, EATS 2018
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityCincinnati
Period7/12/187/14/18

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The authors would like to express sincere thanks to the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Department of Energy (DOE) for their partial financial support (NASA Grant No. NNC15CA29C and DOE Grant No. DE-EE0007252) for the work presented in this paper.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 AIAA.

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Energy Engineering and Power Technology
  • Aerospace Engineering
  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering
  • Mechanical Engineering

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