Feasibility Study of a Series Hybrid-Electric Propulsion System for a Fixed Wing VTOL Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

Abstract

General VTOL aircraft uses gas turbine engine which has high power to weight ratio.However, in the VTOL UAV in small sector, the gas turbine as a prime mover is not adequate because of the limitation of the high fuel consumption ratio of the gas turbine. In this research, The Series Hybrid-Electric Propulsion System(SHEPS) has been proposed and technology survey & comparison analysis has conducted to constitute propulsion system for engine, electric motor and battery. To achieve this object a 65kg-class P-UAV from "Company I" was used. And to estimate the validity of power control algorithm and developed power management control, Matlab/simulink ® has been used for the simulation.As a result, the developed algorithm worked comparatively well and the research has predicted that SHEPS was satisfied enough for 7 hour of endurance for mission profile.