Hybrid Aircraft; academic reSearch on Thermal and Electrical Components and Systems
Résumé
Demand for more environmentally friendly flight has been driving innovation in propulsion systems. HASTECS proposed designs that increase the efficiency and decrease the weight of on-board power components in hybrid propulsion systems.
Merging expertise in electrical, chemical and thermal engineering, the EU-funded HASTECS project assessed and optimised architectures for hybrid propulsion – an evolving technology that could yield many reductions in CO2 emissions in future aircraft. As in hybrid cars, the technology supplements traditional fuel-burning internal combustion engines with electric motors that use energy from auxiliary power sources such as batteries or fuel cells.
Despite their promising potential, electrical systems require advances in power electronics to handle the ever-increasing loads and need to dissipate the heat created by losses within the electrical power chain. Furthermore, the additional weight and fuel consumption introduced by the extra electric components need to be offset by very high-energy performance systems.
“Focusing on regional aircraft designed to fly up to 70 passengers on short-haul routes, we developed models and designed tools to optimise hybrid propulsion. Our activities ranged across the whole spectrum of hybrid electric power chain: electric machines, cooling, power electronics and thermal management,” notes Xavier Roboam, research director at the LAPLACE laboratory at the University of Toulouse in France and HASTECS coordinator.