Speaker
Description
The aviation industry is undergoing a transformative shift towards electrification to address urgent environmental challenges and reduce operational costs. While electric propulsion has been successfully demonstrated in small aircraft, the transition to larger aircraft presents substantial technical challenges, particularly in power distribution systems that must efficiently manage megawatt-level power while optimizing power density and ensuring system reliability. As part of our continued research on power distribution for electric aircraft, we have performed trade space analysis on various power distribution configurations. For electric aircraft which employ turbo-electric distributed propulsion multiple terminations are required near one another to supply the power demands of the propulsion motor. We have seen where it is advantageous to employ a high temperature superconducting (HTS) cable coupled with a cryogenically cooled aluminum busbar.
We have begun the conceptual design of a 4 MW cryogenically cooled aluminum busbar with an intended operating current of up to 4 kA and an operating voltage of 1 kV DC. As part of our design, we are investigating having both poles of the busbar within the same cryostat with an inner diameter of 85 mm. We have also begun to explore techniques to enable low electrical resistance connections to be made utilizing various spring connections. Utilizing the spring connections is seen as a technique to reduce the overall volumetric packaging of the busbar and enable a design with discrete cryogenic cooling to the busbar compared to other electrical devices in the power distribution system. This is of great importance as failure of the cryogenic cooling to the busbar is seen as one of the worst failure modes that can occur.
As part of the paper, we will discuss the design process of the 4 MW busbar, including how interfaces with other power devices within the distribution network are made. We will also provide commentary on material selection/grade for the aluminum busbar, electrical insulation design, thermal management optimization, and anticipated contact resistance of interfaces.
