Power and Thermal Management of a Series Hybrid-Electric Aircraft Propulsion System

With the rise of aviation standards and the need to increase reliability and improve aircraft performance, various strategies have been considered to reduce fuel consumption, lower the emission, and more integrated control to improve the system response, especially in emergency situations. One of the most important of these has been the electrification of the aircraft propulsion system. The most important challenges in the development of these systems include: the need to use equipment with high levels of power, voltage and frequency while simultaneously lowering the total weight of the propulsion module, and the associated thermal challenges. Accordingly, the present study has attempted to examine the performance of these systems by simultaneously considering power and heat flow in a series hybrid propulsion system. After presenting a mathematical model of the system components, low-level and high-level control systems are presented. Finally, flight data from an aircraft in the general aviation class is used to examine the performance of the closed-loop model. It is shown that the proposed model can satisfy the power and thermal requirements of a hybrid propulsion system and results in a 17% fuel saving.