363 / 2017-03-27 13:56:39

Simulation And Detection of Series Arcing Faults in More Electric Aircraft Power System

arcing, simulation,detection

More Electric Aircraft (MEA) applications demand high reliability, high availability, and high power density while aiming to reduce weight, complexity, fuel consumption, operational costs, and environmental impact. The aircraft industry is developing the More Electric Aircraft with an ultimate goal of distributing only electrical power across the airframe, providing significant technical and economic improvements over conventional mechanical, hydraulic, or pneumatic systems. Higher voltages such as 270V DC are required to deliver additional power to loads and the increased voltages inflict more stress on the Electrical Wiring Interconnect System (EWIS) and increase the impact of series arc faults caused by wiring defects.
The purpose of this work is the characterisation, modelling, simulation and detection of series arc faults in 270VDC electrical power distribution systems featuring Solid State Power Controllers (SSPCs). The majority of passive detection schemes in the literature were designed based on empirical data rather than well characterised electric arc parameters, and thus nuisance trips are unavoidable. On one hand, a novel series arc fault ATP/EMTP (Electromagnetic Transients Program) model based on the static Nottingham V-I model and wider solid state electrical system model is established and simulated. On the other hand, a series acring model is tested under laboratory conditions to experimentally validate the model and simulation.
The simulation and experimental results will give supports for subsequent design and diagnosis of More Electric Aircraft wiring.