Design of Partial-discharge-free Busbar for More-electric Aircraft Application with Low Pressure Condition

Many sectors, such as transportation systems, are undergoing rapid electrification due to the need for the mitigation of CO2 emissions. To ensure safe and reliable operation, the electrical equipment must be able to work under various environmental conditions. At high altitudes, the low pressure can adversely affect the health of insulating materials of electrical systems in electric aircraft. A well-known, primary aging mechanism in dielectrics is partial discharge (PD). This study targets internal PD evaluation in an insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) module under low-pressure conditions. The estimation of electric field distribution is conducted through 3D finite element analysis (FEA) using COMSOL Multiphysics®. The procedure of PD detection and transient modeling is performed in MATLAB for two pressure levels (atmospheric and half-atmospheric). The case study is the IGBT module with a void or two voids in the proximity of triple joints. The single-void case demonstrates that at half-atmospheric pressure, the intensity of discharges per voltage cycle increases by more than 40% compared to atmospheric pressure. The double-void case further shows that a void that is harmless at sea level can turn into an additional source of aging and couple with the other voids to escalate PD intensity by a factor of two or more.

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Modelling and analysis of vienna rectifier for more electric aircraft applications using wide band-gap materials

Journal of Physics Conference Series ◽

10.1088/1742-6596/2120/1/012027 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 2120 (1) ◽

pp. 012027

Author(s):

Ling Jin Loong ◽

Chockalingam Aravind Vaithilingam ◽

Gowthamraj Rajendran ◽

Venkatkumar Muneeswaran

Keyword(s):

Power Density ◽

High Power ◽

High Efficiency ◽

Wide Band ◽

Wide Bandgap ◽

High Power Density ◽

Vienna Rectifier ◽

Electric Aircraft ◽

Aircraft Application ◽

More Electric Aircraft

Abstract This paper presents a comprehensive study on the switching effects of wide bandgap devices and the importance of power electronics in an aircraft application. Silicon (Si), silicon carbide (SiC), and gallium nitride (GaN) are wide bandgap devices that act as a power electronic switch in the AC-DC converter for More Electric Aircraft (MEA) applications. Therefore, it is important to observe their converting efficiency to identify the most suitable wide bandgap device among three devices for AC-DC converters in aircraft applications to provide high efficiency and high-power density. In this study, the characteristics of Si, SIC, and GaN devices are simulated using PSIM software. Also, this paper presents the performance of the Vienna rectifier for aircraft application. The Vienna rectifier using Si, SiC, and GaN devices are simulated using PSIM software for aircraft application. GaN with Vienna rectifier provides better performance than Si and SiC devices for aircraft applications among the three devices. It gives high efficiency, high power density, low input current THD to meet IEEE-519 standard, and high-power factor at mains.

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