Component Modeling and System Level Simulation of Aircraft Electrical Systems

The electric powered aircraft's secondary system has advantages of cost and efficiency when compared to the conventional aircraft power system. However, the advantages come at the cost of increased design and analysis complexity. To support computer based modeling and simulation of aircraft electrical system, this paper presents two libraries in ANSYS Simplorer. At system level, a VHDL-AMS based behavioral aircraft electrical library is developed to provide a convenient way for designers to prototype and analyze the electric power distribution systems. The library components are developed as generic components, which can easily be reused and have the ability to be modified (with experimental data) to fit specific applications. Various subsystems of the aircraft electrical system are discussed in combination with the multi-level components provided by the library. At device level, a library of detailed power semiconductor models is provided for accurate simulation of power electronics. Using the device characterization tool in Simplorer, parameters of these models can be extracted from electrical and thermal characteristics given in manufacturers' datasheet. Finally, a simplified aircraft electric power generation and distribution system with multiple control loops is discussed to demonstrate the usage of the library.