Optimal power system design and energy management for more electric aircrafts

Abstract Recent developments in fuel cell (FC) and battery energy storage technologies bring a promising perspective for improving the economy and endurance of electric aircraft. However, aircraft power system configuration and power distribution strategies should be reasonably designed to enable this benefit. This paper is the first attempt to investigate the optimal energy storage system sizing and power distribution strategies for electric aircraft with hybrid FC and battery propulsion systems. First, a novel integrated energy management and parameter sizing (IEMPS) framework is established to co-design aircraft hardware and control algorithms. Under the IEMPS framework, a new real-time power distribution algorithm with a flexible ratio is established to facilitate integrated parameter optimization, which can adapt to different power system configurations. Based on the comprehensive analysis of hydrogen economy, FC aging cost, and aircraft stability, a multi-objective parameter optimization model is established to decide the size of aircraft energy storage systems and hyper-parameters in the power controller. The X-57 Maxwell, an experimental electric aircraft designed by NASA, is employed to verify the developed methods. This work provides a novel power system configuration, sizing, and power management method for future commercial aircraft design, and it can further promote the aviation electrification process.