Thermopile energy storage for a rotary wing aircraft

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10377501-B2
Application number	US-201615221683-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 28, 2016
Priority date	Jul 31, 2015
Publication date	Aug 13, 2019
Grant date	Aug 13, 2019

Abstract

A rotary wing aircraft having an electrical installation including at least one thermopile for powering at least one piece of electrical load equipment. Technical specifications for the thermopile specify: a usable power for supplying to the load equipment in the range 20 W to 200 kW, a power rise time lapse lying in the range 3 s to 30 s, and a low operating time for usefully supplying a predetermined quantity of electrical energy lying in the range 10 s to 180 s. The invention applies in particular to rotary wing aircraft.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of configuring a rotary wing aircraft, the rotary wing aircraft incorporating an electrical installation and electrical load equipment, the electrical installation including at least one thermopile and being suitable for delivering on demand a predetermined quantity of electrical energy to at least one piece of electrical load equipment, the method comprising at least a step of powering the electrical installation and the pieces of electrical load equipment in compliance with a definition of technical specifications for the at least one thermopile and for the electrical installation in operational terms, in structural terms, and in terms of arrangement within the aircraft, the step of supplying power in compliance with the technical specifications comprising:
a usable power for supplying by the at least one thermopile as a function of the quantity of electrical energy to be delivered by the electrical installation at least for the electrical load equipment;
a power rise time lapse of the at least one thermopile for rising at least to the predetermined quantity of electrical energy;
a low operating time during which the predetermined quantity of electrical energy can be supplied usefully by the at least one thermopile at least to the electrical load equipment; and
an availability time t availability during which the electrical load equipment does not require energy but the at least one thermopile remains hot ready for use at any moment;
wherein the usable power is predetermined in the range 20 W to 200 kW, the power rise time lapse lies in the range 3 s to 30 s, the low operating time for useful supply lies in the range 10 s to 180 s, and the availability time t availability lies in the range 10 s to 300 s; and wherein the step of supplying power in compliance with the definition of the technical specifications includes at least one maximization routine for maximizing the quantity of usable power P load (t) supplied as a function of time t when the at least one thermopile is activated, the maximization routine controlling impedance matching electrical operation of the at least one piece of electrical load equipment, the maximization routine assuming that the at least one thermopile is equivalent, in application of a Thévenin conversion model, to a looped linear electric circuit comprising in series the resistance R pile of the thermopile and the resistance R load of the equipment, with the electromotive force emf pile of the thermopile, a load electric current I load (t) and a load electric voltage U load (t) of the equipment, such that the maximization routine determines a load voltage value U load (t) that causes the following derivative to be zero:

dP
load

⁡

(
t
)

dI
load

⁡

(
t
)

=

emf
pile

-

2
*

R
pile

⁡

(
t
)

*

I
load

⁡

(
t
)

=
0

the load voltage U load (t) being replaced when the resistance R load of the equipment is equal to the resistance R pile of the thermopile forming the source, such that the maximization routine adapts the load voltage U load (t) so as to obtain:

U
load

⁡

(
t
)

=

emf
pile

2

2. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the method includes a post-activation evaluation rule for evaluating the quantity of electrical energy available from the at least one thermopile while it is in operation, the evaluation rule supplying an energy percentage value T % at the current instant t current from the remaining energy E remaining in the thermopile, the remaining energy E remaining being obtained by differentiating the initial energy E initial in the thermopile, being differentiated from the measured activation instant t activation to the current instant t current for delivered power P delivered (t) at the current instant t current , where:
P delivered ( t )= U load ( t current )* I load ( t current )
and using the following formula:
E remaining =E initial ∫ tactivation t P delivered ( t ) dt

and then on the basis of the remaining energy E remaining , the evaluation rule determines the time remaining at power P “T remaining at power P ” as a function of the power P, which is the power measured at the current instant t current and as a function of a time at maximum power “T available.max ” which is specific to the thermopile given its dimensions, the evaluation rule calculates the energy value T % using the following formula:

T

remaining
⁢

⁢
at
⁢

⁢
power
⁢

⁢
P

=

E
remaining

P

such that the energy value T % is given by:

T
⁢

⁢
%

=

T

remaining
⁢

⁢
at
⁢

⁢
power
⁢

Assignees

• Airbus Helicopters

Inventors

• Connaulte Matthieu

Classifications

• H01M6/50

  Methods or arrangements for servicing or maintenance, e.g. for maintaining operating temperature (constructional details of current conducting connections for detecting conditions inside cells or batteries, e.g. details of voltage sensing terminals, H01M50/569) · CPC title

• B64D2027/026

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic

• B64C27/02

  Gyroplanes · CPC title

• B64D2221/00

  Electric power distribution systems onboard aircraft · CPC title

• H01L35/02

  Electricity · mapped topic