Integrated Battery Chargers

Integrated battery chargers (IBCs) have been proposed as a low-weight, low-volume, and high-power solution to conventional conductive chargers. However, the design of such chargers is complicated, requiring special components or control techniques to solve inherent issues (such as galvanic isolation, torque generation, and system reconfiguration) associated with their design. Solutions vary based on charging power, drive topology, and motor technology. This chapter introduces designs for IBCs, including solutions as proposed in the literature. It also presents challenges in their industrial adoption. Finally, the chapter presents opportunities for fleet charging applications using IBCs.

Distribution system reconfiguration using water cycle algorithm

High power losses are a great concern in operating electric distribution system. Reconfiguration is one of the most economic approaches for reducing power losses of the system. This study suggests a technique for dealing with the distribution system reconfiguration problem based on a water cycle algorithm for minimizing active power loss. The water cycle algorithm is a recently developed metaheuristic algorithm that inspired the process of water circulation for solving optimization problems. The effectiveness and performance of the water cycle algorithm were tested on the 33-node and 69-node systems. The water cycle algorithm was applied to determine the best configuration of the distribution system for active power loss minimization. The results yielded by the water cycle algorithm were compared with other optimization algorithms in the literature and the comparisons showed that the water cycle algorithm obtained good quality of solution for the problem. Therefore, the water cycle algorithm is the potential method for the distribution system reconfiguration problem.

Development of a Smart Supercapacitor Energy Storage System for Aircraft Electric Power Systems

This paper presents the development of a supercapacitor energy storage system (ESS) aimed to minimize weight, which is very important for aerospace applications, whilst integrating smart functionalities like voltage monitoring, equalization, and overvoltage protection for the cells. The methodology for selecting the supercapacitor cells type/size is detailed to achieve the safest and most energy-dense ESS. Additionally, the development of the interface electronics for cells’ voltage monitoring and overvoltage protection is presented. The proposed design implements a modular distributed architecture coordinated using communication buses to minimize the wirings and associated complexity and to enable system reconfiguration and expansions, as well as fault diagnoses. Validating the proposed ESS functionalities has been done via experimental testing and the results are presented and discussed.

A Model-based Method for System Reconfiguration

System Reconfiguration is essential in complex systems management, as it is an enabler of system adaptability with regard to system evolutions. System evolutions have to be managed to ensure system effectiveness and efficiency through its whole life cycle, particularly when it comes to complex systems that take years of development and dozens of years of usage. In this context, system reconfiguration ensures system operation and maintains system “ilities” (e.g., reliability, availability, maintainability, testability, and safety). This research has been conducted in the context of a large international aerospace, space, ground transportation, defense, and security company. This research aims at supporting system reconfiguration during operations. Within current industrial practices, the development of reconfiguration support is challenging as it requires integrating data related to observations (from operations) and system design (from engineering). More specifically, there is a need to integrate and link relevant reconfiguration data concerning the system objectives, operational context, and level of functioning. This paper proposes integrating and linking this fundamental data within a reconfiguration method. MBSysRec is a multidisciplinary method that involves configuration generation and a multi-criteria decision-making method for configuration evaluation and selection to support system reconfiguration during operations. The method has been implemented on two projects based on historical data. Resulting configurations have been discussed and assessed by system reconfiguration experts. A SAR case study is used to demonstrate the method. The method is proven effective for finding relevant system configurations for reconfiguring the already deployed system to achieve search and rescue missions.