NASA Turbo-electric Distributed Propulsion Bench

Papathakis, Kurt V.; Kloesel, Kurt; Lin, Yohan; Clarke, Sean; Ediger, Jacob J.; Ginn, Starr

doi:10.2514/6.2016-4611

Cited by 11 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 2 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…4. For an actual 200-kW capable system, a Hybrid-Electric Integrated Systems Testbed (HEIST) is being operated at the NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center (AFRC) in Edwards, California to study power management and flight control laws to enable hybrid-electric (HE) DEP hardware integration and piloted simulations [18]. An artist's rendition of the HEIST test platform is shown in Fig.…”

Section: Distributed Electric Propulsion Technologies and Aircraft Conceptsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Review of Distributed Electric Propulsion Concepts for Air Vehicle Technology

Kim

Perry

Ansell

2018

2018 AIAA/IEEE Electric Aircraft Technologies Symposium

220

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The emergence of distributed electric propulsion (DEP) concepts for aircraft systems has enabled new capabilities in the overall efficiency, capabilities, and robustness of future air vehicles. Distributed electric propulsion systems feature the novel approach of utilizing electrically-driven propulsors which are only connected electrically to energy sources or power-generating devices. As a result, propulsors can be placed, sized, and operated with greater flexibility to leverage the synergistic benefits of aero-propulsive coupling and provide improved performance over more traditional designs. A number of conventional aircraft concepts that utilize distributed electric propulsion have been developed, along with various short and vertical takeoff and landing platforms. Careful integration of electrically-driven propulsors for boundary-layer ingestion can allow for improved propulsive efficiency and wake-filling benefits. The placement and configuration of propulsors can also be used to mitigate the trailing vortex system of a lifting surface or leverage increases in dynamic pressure across blown surfaces for increased lift performance. Additionally, the thrust stream of distributed electric propulsors can be utilized to enable new capabilities in vehicle control, including reducing requirements for traditional control surfaces and increasing tolerance of the vehicle control system to engine-out or propulsor-out scenarios. If one or more turboelectric generators and multiple electric fans are used, the increased effective bypass ratio of the whole propulsion system can also enable lower community noise during takeoff and landing segments of flight and higher propulsive efficiency at all conditions. Furthermore, the small propulsors of a DEP system can be installed to leverage an acoustic shielding effect by the airframe, which can further reduce noise signatures. The rapid growth in flight-weight electrical systems and power architectures has provided new enabling technologies for future DEP concepts, which provide flexible operational capabilities far beyond those of current systems. While a number of integration challenges exist, DEP is a disruptive concept that can lead to unprecedented improvements in future aircraft designs.

show abstract

Section: Distributed Electric Propulsion Technologies and Aircraft Conceptsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Review of Distributed Electric Propulsion Concepts for Air Vehicle Technology

Kim

Perry

Ansell

2018

2018 AIAA/IEEE Electric Aircraft Technologies Symposium

220

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…It usually adopts the layout of adding a rotor system to the fixed-wing body. The vertical take-off and landing abilities are obtained while basically maintaining the advantages of the fixed-wing aircraft platform in terms of efficiency, speed, and range, which greatly improves the agility of the platform and can be applied to more mission scenarios [1] .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling and optimization of the energy system for series hybrid electric fixed-wing VTOL

Zhu

Zong

et al. 2022

J. Phys.: Conf. Ser.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In this paper, the fixed-wing vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft is studied. Based on the typical mission profile, the flight process of fixed-wing VTOL aircraft is divided into rotor mode and fixed-wing mode, and the dynamic models of the two modes are established respectively. The power transmission model of the series hybrid electric system is established, the concept of hybridization for power (Hp ) is introduced, and an optimization method of power allocation based on Hp is proposed. The optimization method is verified by simulation, and the results show that, compared with the pure electric energy system, the performance of the optimized hybrid energy system is improved obviously.

show abstract

“…Notably, work has begun by NASA at the Glenn research center on ground test hardware for a megawatt-scale turboelectric system [15]. NASA has also created a 200 kW ground test device that has successfully operated and distributed power [16]. Overall, there is a lack of research on the actual construction of such a system.…”

Section: Introduction 1purposementioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental Comparison of Direct and Active Throttle Control of a 7 kW Turboelectric Power System for Unmanned Aircraft

Burgess¹,

Runnels²,

Johnsen³

et al. 2021

Applied Sciences

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article compares direct turbine throttle control and active turbine throttle control for a turboelectric system; the featured turboprop is rated for 7 kW of shaft output power. The powerplant is intended for applications in unmanned aerial systems and requires a control system to produce different amounts of power for varying mission legs. The most straightforward control scheme explored is direct turbine control, which is characterized by the pilot controlling the throttle of the turbine engine. In contrast, active control is characterized by the turbine reacting to the power demanded by the electric motors or battery recharge cycle. The transient response to electric loads of a small-scale turboelectric system is essential in identifying and characterizing such a system’s safe operational parameters. This paper directly compares the turbogenerator’s transient behavior to varying electric loads and categorizes its dynamic response. A proportional, integral, and derivative (PID) control algorithm was utilized as an active throttle controller through a microcontroller with battery power augmentation for the turboelectric system. This controller manages the turbine’s throttle reactions in response to any electric load when applied or altered. By comparing the system’s response with and without the controller, the authors provide a method to safely minimize the response time of the active throttle controller for use in the real-world environment of unmanned aircraft.

show abstract

NASA Turbo-electric Distributed Propulsion Bench

Cited by 11 publications

References 2 publications

A Review of Distributed Electric Propulsion Concepts for Air Vehicle Technology

A Review of Distributed Electric Propulsion Concepts for Air Vehicle Technology

Modeling and optimization of the energy system for series hybrid electric fixed-wing VTOL

Experimental Comparison of Direct and Active Throttle Control of a 7 kW Turboelectric Power System for Unmanned Aircraft

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About