Electrical energy distribution network in a transport vehicle, such as an aircraft, and an electrical installation in an aircraft

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9983609-B2
Application number	US-201414537404-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 10, 2014
Priority date	Nov 8, 2013
Publication date	May 29, 2018
Grant date	May 29, 2018

Abstract

An electrical energy distribution network in a transport vehicle, such as an aircraft, includes nodes to which at least one power supply source and at least one equipment can be connected by external links. The nodes are interconnected by internode links forming at least one mesh in a meshed network, each mesh being polygonal of order higher than or equal to three, at least one node of each mesh being an active node controlled by a management unit. The active nodes include switches and transmit physical operating characteristics measurements to the management unit, which configures the active nodes according to said measurements so as to enable each equipment to receive power supply via the meshed network. Flexibility in configuration of the electrical energy distribution network is thus achieved.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An electrical energy distribution network for a transport vehicle, the electrical energy distribution network comprising a management unit and nodes to which at least one power supply source and at least one equipment to be supplied by said power supply source can be connected by external links, wherein said nodes are connected together by internode links forming at least one mesh of a meshed network, each mesh being polygonal of an order higher than or equal to three and providing two paths between any two nodes in a respective mesh, at least one node in each mesh being an active node, each active node in said electrical energy distribution network being controlled by the management unit so as to control each electrical connection of the internode links and external links connected to said active node,
wherein each active node comprises:
switches, each switch having a terminal connected to a port to which an internode or external link is connected and a terminal connected to a common point, and
a control unit configured to receive control data from said management unit and to control each of said switches to open or close an electrical connection to an internode or external link,

wherein each active node is configured to measure physical operating characteristics of said node that delivers measurement signals to the control unit, and
wherein the control unit is configured to transmit said measurement signals to the management unit, which is configured to configure the nodes according to said measurement signals to enable each equipment to receive power supply via the meshed network.

2. The electrical energy distribution network according to claim 1 , wherein all the meshes of said meshed network are identical.

3. The electrical energy distribution network according to claim 1 , wherein each other node different than one of said active node provides electrical connection of all the internode links and external links connected to said other node.

4. The electrical energy distribution network according to claim 1 , wherein said management unit is configured to allocate a logical address to each active node and to each switch of said active node, and said management unit is configured to transmit control data to the logical address of a respective switch or, in the case of control data relating to all the switches of any active node, the logical address of said active node.

5. The electrical energy distribution network according to claim 1 , wherein the internode and/or external links consist of coaxial cables comprising a conductor for a power supply signal and a conductor for ground, all of the nodes enabling the continuity of network ground connectivity with the internode and external links.

6. The electrical energy distribution network according to claim 5 , wherein said internode or external links are further configured to transmit control signals, all of the nodes enabling transmission of said control signals throughout the meshed network.

7. The electrical energy distribution network according to claim 1 , wherein each active node has a physical address and is configured to communicate said physical address.

8. The electrical energy distribution network according to claim 1 , wherein the electrical energy distribution network is installed in an aircraft.

9. The electrical energy distribution network according to claim 8 , wherein the electrical energy distribution network is one of a plurality of electrical energy distribution networks installed on the aircraft, the active nodes of which are controlled by a single management unit.

10. The electrical energy distribution network according to claim 8 , wherein said electrical energy distribution networks is installed at floor level in the aircraft.

11. The electrical energy distribution network according to claim 10 , wherein the nodes of said electrical energy distribution network installed at floor level in the aircraft are fixed on cross members forming part of the aircraft's structure and the links are mounted either on said cross members or on passenger seat runners of the aircraft.

Assignees

• Airbus Operations Sas
• Airbus Sas
• Airbus Sas
• Airbus Operations Sas

Inventors

• Perju Catalin
• Cuiller Claude
• Waidelich Kathryn
• Valancogne Xavier
• Le-Flecher Hervé
• Valentin Damien

Classifications

• H02J1/08

  Three-wire DC power distribution systems; Systems having more than three wires · CPC title

• H04L67/12

  specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks · CPC title

• G05F1/66 Primary

  Regulating electric power · CPC title