Editorial Electrical Machines and Drives for the More ... - IEEE Xplore

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Published in IET Electric Power Applications doi: 10.1049/iet-epa.2011.9010. Special Section – Electrical Machines and Drives for the. More Electric Aircraft.
www.ietdl.org Published in IET Electric Power Applications doi: 10.1049/iet-epa.2011.9010

Special Section – Electrical Machines and Drives for the More Electric Aircraft

ISSN 1751-8660

Editorial Electrical Machines and Drives for the More Electric Aircraft The ‘More Electric Aircraft’ is a term used to describe an aircraft in which electrical power is employed for a range of primary functions, including actuation, de-icing, cabin air conditioning and engine start. This has revolutionised the engine control and has removed the need for hydraulic and bleed air systems. The motivation is strong: the More Electric Aircraft promises reduced fuel burn, higher reliability and reduced cost of ownership. However, the challenges are enormous. Power electronically controlled machines must operate in extreme environments, have minimal weight and also provide reliability much greater than has hitherto been produced by industrial drives. This is a particularly exciting period in which future generations of fixed and rotary wing aircraft will start to become increasingly reliant on electrical systems. A large body of knowledge is emerging from industrial and academic research programmes and it is consequently an ideal time for a special issue.

Response to Call for papers Although the call for papers was truly international, the vast majority of contributions came from within the UK. This is not because the call only appealed to national researchers; it rather reflects the world leading research being undertaken in this field within the UK. There are articles from the world’s two largest aircraft engine manufacturers, Rolls Royce and General Electric, alongside a series of papers published by university researchers. In all cases the universities concerned are informed by extensive industrial collaboration with aerospace manufacturers, so their work is in line with current industrial thinking.

Redundancy and Fault Tolerance The dominant theme within the contributions is that of fault tolerance. There is growing acceptance that conventional drive systems will not be able to meet the reliability requirements IET Electr. Power Appl., 2011, Vol. 5, Iss. 1, pp. 1– 2 doi: 10.1049/iet-epa.2011.9010

and hence a level of redundancy is essential. Hence many papers examine how fault tolerance can be introduced, and the consequences of it. However, the number of fault tolerant drive systems which have been implemented is still small and no fault tolerant drives have actually been used in a production aircraft. The topic of fault-tolerant architectures is far from resolved – it is still unclear how the first flying fault-tolerant drive will be configured.

Contributions This issue commences with papers relating to the engine and electrical generation systems and then progresses to actuation and load systems. The papers concerned with the engine and generation systems: † summarise the results of the 100 million Euro Power Optimised Aircraft programme; outline the technologies developed as replacements for conventional turbofan engine components and discuss the key features of the power electronics, generation and motor drive systems integrated within the aircraft engine † examine one of the principle candidates for jet engine electrical power generation in future more-electric aircraft – a variable-speed multi-spool direct drive architecture with a DC distribution bus † consider how to maintain output power quality from a fault tolerant generator when operating with an electrical fault. Those relating to actuators and loads: † discuss the generic design requirements for electromechanical actuators from a safety perspective, including the application of fault tolerant electric drives 1

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www.ietdl.org † analyse power flow in an electro-mechanical actuator for the aileron of an aircraft, discussing whether regeneration back into the electrical network should be permitted † review fault-tolerant permanent including the key tradeoffs

magnet

machines,

† investigate rotor losses in fault tolerant machines when operating with faults † describe how to implement condition monitoring of a permanent magnet machine through the use of high frequency injection † propose a moving magnet actuator for use in active vibration control of helicopter rotor blades and compare it with piezoelectric alternatives. We hope that readers find the contributions both interesting and informative. The papers have been used as the basis of an IET seminar, held at the University of Manchester in December 2010, which was both popular and stimulated some interesting debate. This is a model we would like to encourage for future IET Special Issues.

Acknowledgments We would like to thank both the authors of the papers for their valuable contributions and the reviewers, whose constructive criticism helped to improve the quality of all contributions. We would particularly like to thank Joanna Lawrie of the IET for her professional support, which assisted in making this special issue a reality. BARRIE MECROW JOHN CULLEN PHIL MELLOR Barrie Mecrow is Professor of Electrical Power at Newcastle University. He commenced his career as a turbogenerator design engineer with NEI Parsons, England, where his PhD research was on 3D eddy current

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computation applied to turbogenerators. He joined Newcastle University in 1987, where he is now deputy head of School and head of the Power Electronics, Drives and Machines research group. His research interests include fault tolerant drives, high performance PM machines and novel switched reluctance drives. John J.A. Cullen obtained a BSc (Hons) in Electrical Engineering and Economics in 1973 and then, in 1979, a PhD in superconducting generator modelling, both from Dundee University. He has worked as an electrical engineer for Rolls-Royce for almost 30 years on projects ranging from electrical and hybrid vehicles, hub motors, superconducting marine propulsion motors, and directdrive wind turbine generators up to GW-scale turbine generators for Utility application. For the last 12 years he has been a member of the Electrical Engineering team within the Strategic Research Centre of Rolls-Royce plc where he designed a 1.5 MW high-speed permanent magnet generator and led the team developing and testing a 250 kW fault-tolerant permanent magnet generator for the More Electric Aero-engine. Most recently, for the SuSys project, he has been leading the team investigating superconducting marine propulsion motors having integrated power electronics. He is a member of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) and a Chartered Engineer. Phil Mellor is Professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of Bristol and head of the Electrical Energy Management Group. His PhD research was concerned with lumped parameter thermal modelling of induction motors. After a brief spell at GEC Hirst Research Centre in Wembley he returned to academia where he has held posts at the Universities of Liverpool and Sheffield. His current research is concerned with the design optimisation of compact electrical drives and actuators with an emphasis on aerospace and automotive applications.

IET Electr. Power Appl., 2011, Vol. 5, Iss. 1, pp. 1 – 2 doi: 10.1049/iet-epa.2011.9010