System Wide Reliability Impact of Power Converters in More-Electric
Aircraft Applications 2023-01-0991
The continued electrification of aircraft is required such that ambitious
decarbonisation targets can be met. A significant challenge presented with this
trend is the increased reliance on electrical systems to perform flight-critical
operations in a manner that has not been seen in previous generations of
aircraft. The power electronic converter is a key enabling technology in
aircraft electrification. Its prevalence is such that the failure rate of flight
critical-loads is closely linked with that of the associated power electronic
converters. As such, there is a clear need to better understand the impact of
improvements in both the reliability and failure estimation of novel power
electronic converters at a systems level in future aerospace applications.
Accordingly, this paper presents key highlights from literature on power
converter research, summarising advances in reliability-enhancing features and
more accurate Physics-of-Failure modelling methods. Simulation studies are then
presented, which explore the impact of component-level advancements in power
converters on the system-level failure rates and power system architecture
configurations of flight-critical loads in more-electric aircraft
applications.
Citation: Millar, K., Fong, K., Alzola, R., Norman, P. et al., "System Wide Reliability Impact of Power Converters in More-Electric Aircraft Applications," SAE Technical Paper 2023-01-0991, 2023, https://doi.org/10.4271/2023-01-0991. Download Citation
Author(s):
Kieran Millar, Kenny Fong, Rafael Peña Alzola, Patrick J. Norman, Graeme M. Burt
Affiliated:
University of Strathclyde
Pages: 7
Event:
2023 AeroTech
ISSN:
0148-7191
e-ISSN:
2688-3627
Related Topics:
Electric aircraft
Power electronics
Architecture
Electrical systems
Aircraft
Failure analysis
Data exchange
Simulation and modeling
Reliability
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