Electric power supply system for an aircraft

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12027871-B2
Application number	US-202217958558-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 3, 2022
Priority date	Oct 8, 2021
Publication date	Jul 2, 2024
Grant date	Jul 2, 2024

Abstract

An electric power supply system for an aircraft includes: a first electric source and a second electric source coupled together to supply electric power to a set of electrical loads, and a controller configured to acquire a piece of information on the current electric consumption consumed by the set of electrical loads; acquire a piece of information corresponding to a target ratio of the distribution, between the first and second electric sources, of the current electric consumption consumed by the set of electrical loads; perform frequency filtering of the current electric consumption to determine a transient consumption portion of the current electric consumption; determine control setpoints for the first electric source and for the second electric source in accordance with the target distribution ratio and with the transient consumption portion; and apply the control setpoints to the first and second electric sources.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An electric power supply system for an aircraft, said system comprising:
at least a first electric source,
a second electric source coupled together in order to supply electric power to a set of electrical loads of the aircraft,
a controller configured to control the first electric source and the second electric source,
wherein the controller is configured to:
acquire a piece of information on a current electric consumption consumed by said set of electrical loads, this piece of information on the current electric consumption originating from at least one sensor;
acquire a piece of information corresponding to a target ratio of a distribution, between the first electric source and the second electric source, of the current electric consumption consumed by said set of electrical loads, for a current phase of use of the aircraft;
perform frequency filtering of the current electric consumption to determine a transient consumption portion of said current electric consumption;
determine control setpoints for the first electric source and for the second electric source in accordance with the target distribution ratio and with the transient consumption portion so as to distribute the electric consumption of the set of electrical loads between the first electric source and the second electric source according to said target distribution ratio when the transient consumption portion is zero and, when the transient consumption portion is non-zero, to demand delivery of the transient consumption portion only from the second electric source; and
apply the control setpoints to the first electric source and to the second electric source.

2. The electric power supply system according to claim 1 , wherein the controller comprises a first frequency filter.

3. The electric power supply system according to claim 2 ,
wherein the first frequency filter receives as input the current electric consumption,
wherein the control setpoint for the first electric source corresponds to a product of an output of the first frequency filter and a coefficient which depends on the target distribution ratio, and
wherein the control setpoint for the second electric source corresponds to a difference between the current electric consumption and the control setpoint for the first electric source.

4. The electric power supply system according to claim 2 ,
wherein the first frequency filter receives as input a product of the current electric consumption and a coefficient which depends on the target distribution ratio,
wherein the control setpoint for the first electric source corresponds to an output of the first frequency filter, and
wherein the control setpoint for the second electric source corresponds to a difference between the current electric consumption and the control setpoint for the first electric source.

5. The electric power supply system according to claim 2 , wherein the controller comprises at least two frequency filters, and
wherein the controller is configured so that the control setpoint for the first electric source corresponds to a product of the current electric consumption and a coefficient which depends on the target distribution ratio, multiplied by the product of transfer functions of various frequency filters, and the control setpoint for the second electric source corresponds to a difference between the current electric consumption and the control setpoint for the first electric source.

6. The electric power supply system according to claim 5 ,
wherein the controller comprises two frequency filters, namely said first frequency filter and a second frequency filter,
wherein the first frequency filter receives as input the current electric consumption,
wherein the second frequency filter receives as input the product of an output of the first frequency filter and the coefficient which depends on the target distribution ratio, and
wherein the control setpoint for the first electric source corresponds to an output of the second frequency filter.

7. The electric power supply system according to claim 5 ,
wherein the controller comprises two frequency filters, namely said first frequency filter and a second frequency filter,
wherein the first frequency filter receives as input the current electric consumption,
wherein the second frequency filter receives as input an output of the first frequency filter, and
wherein the control setpoint for the first electric source corresponds to the product of an output of the second frequency filter and the coefficient which depends on the target distribution ratio.

8. The electric power supply system according to claim 5 ,
wherein the controller comprises two frequency filters, namely said first frequency filter and a second frequency filter,
wherein the first frequency filter receives as input the product of the current electric consumption and the coefficient which depends on the target distribution ratio,
wherein the second frequency filter receives as input an output of the first frequency filter and in that the control setpoint for the first electric source corresponds to an output of the second frequency filter.

9. The electric power supply system according to claim 2 , wherein each of the frequency filters comprises at least one low-pass filter.

10. The electric power supply system according to claim 9 , wherein a cut-off frequency of the low-pass filter is less than or equal to 10 seconds.

11. The electric power supply system according to claim 10 , wherein the cut-off frequency of the low-pass filter is less than or equal to 5 seconds.

12. The electric power supply system according to claim 1 , wherein the piece of information on the current electric consumption consumed by the set of electrical loads corresponds to a piece of information on current electrical power consumed by the set of electrical loads or to a piece of information on the current electric current consumed by the set of electrical loads.

13. The electric power supply system according to claim 1 , wherein one of the first electric source and the second electric source corresponds to an electric generator mechanically coupled to a shaft of a high-pressure stage of a propulsion engine of the aircraft and the other to an electric generator mechanically coupled to a shaft of a low-pressure stage of a propulsion engine of the aircraft.

14. The electric power supply system according to claim 1 , wherein the first electric source corresponds to an electric generator mechanically coupled to a propulsion engine of the aircraft and the second electric source corresponds to an electric battery or to a supercapacitor.

15. The electric power supply system according to claim 1 , wherein the first electric source corresponds to a fuel cell and the second electric source corresponds to an electric battery or to a supercapacitor.

16. An aircraft comprising an electric power supply system according to claim 1 .

17. The aircraft according to claim 16 ,
wherein the first electric source corresponds to an electric generator driven by a propulsion engine of the aircraft, and
wherein an idling speed of the propulsion engine is regulated in accordance with a mechanical power drawn by this electric generator from the propulsion engine of the aircraft at a steady speed, without leaving a margin, in order to take into account transient variations in the mechanical power which is drawn by the generator.

18. The aircraft according to claim 17 , wherein regulation of the idling speed of the propulsion engine depends on phases of

Assignees

• Airbus Operations Sas

Inventors

• Bradier Matthieu
• Lam Shang Leen Ludovic

Classifications

• H02J2105/32

  for aircrafts · CPC title

• H02J4/00 Primary

  Circuit arrangements for mains or distribution networks not specified as AC or DC; Circuit arrangements for mains or distribution networks combining AC and DC sections or sub-networks (arrangements using intermediate DC-AC-DC conversion H02J1/002; arrangements using high-voltage DC [HVDC] links H02J3/36) · CPC title

• H02J1/102 Primary

  being switching converters (H02J1/108, H02J1/12 take precedence) · CPC title

• B64D41/00

  Power installations for auxiliary purposes · CPC title

• H02J3/48

  Controlling the sharing of active power · CPC title