Grant: Collaborative Research and Development Grants

This project proposes a more efficient and robust power supply for emergency situations in a more electric aircraft (MEA). At first, a hybrid power supply consisting of an air driven genertor (ADG) connected in parallel with a battery pack is considered for the study. Later on, the ADG is replaced by the fuel cells-ultra capacitor system. The main goals of this project are to develop a model of the hybrid power supply and to validate this model using simulation and experimental results.The methodology to achieve the desired goals is the following: The first step will be to model essential loads connected to the ADG. Bombardier will provide information regarding essential loads, flight phases and load sequencing, nominal and peak power requirement associated with the CRJ 900. Based on that information, simplified and generic load models will be developed in SimPowerSystems (SPS). The next section of the project will cover the design, modeling and simulation of the ADG-battery hybrid system. Generic battery and ADG models developed by ÉTS (École de technologie supérieure) will be used for the simulation. The next part of this project will be to design, model, simulate and test the hybrid system, which consists of a fuel cell stack in parallel with a battery and/or super capacitors. Generic models of the fuel cell and battery also developed by ÉTS will be a perfect starting point for the purpose. A reduced prototype of the system will be implemented at the ÉTS power electronics laboratory in order to determine accurately the model parameters and to validate the model performance. The final part of the project will focus on the modeling of loads such as the transformer rectifier unit (TRU) and the electro-hydrostatic actuator (EHA) which are present in MEA.This project presents a new application of fuel cells in aeronautics. With recent technological advances on fuel cell components (electrodes, membrane and catalysts) and pressurized hydrogen tanks, fuel cells can be considered as potential source in aircraft electrical systems. This project will be beneficial to aircraft companies not only in term of fuel consumption and maintenance, but also environmentally as fuel cells produce power with low toxic emissions.