SBIR Technologies Promise Power and Performance for Published June 15, 2010 By Tom Brown Propulsion WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio -- Technologies newly demonstrated by Air Force Research Laboratory industry partner PC Krause and Associates, Inc., could significantly impact the electrical power systems of the Joint Strike Fighter and future More Electric Aircraft . The milestone success occurred during a recent Integrated Vehicle Energy Technology program review, with the Small Business Innovation Research contractor demonstrating its Electrical Accumulator Unit and Advanced Load Emulator--both of which are focal points of the Robust Electrical Power System portion of INVENT--for a diverse crowd of engineers, program managers, and support contractors from AFRL and the aerospace industry. The EAU and ALE technologies stem from 3 years of research into bidirectional EPS architectures; active aircraft loads (e.g., electrical flight actuators, radar, avionics); and aircraft power sources (e.g., the Adaptive Power and Thermal Management System--yet another INVENT focal point, advanced electrical starter-generators, emergency batteries). As modern MEA designs replace hydraulic flight actuation with electrical actuation and traditional electrical loads with next-generation devices, traditional EPS architectures and components often encounter difficulty in meeting the growing electrical demands placed on the system. Experts anticipate that these difficulties will become increasingly challenging in the future, as additional mechanical and hydraulic devices are replaced with electromechanical drives and new directed energy weapons are added to the suite of MEA armaments. EAU technology supplements MEA EPS capability by expanding peak-power availability on the aircraft, providing regenerative power absorption, enhancing bus stability, and reducing mechanical gearbox wear through reduction of electromagnetic torque transients from the generator. A key feature of EAU technology is the utilization of distributed autonomous coordination between the EAU and other power sources in the system. This feature enables systems integrators to incorporate an EAU into existing and future MEA EPS architectures with no impact to other components or suppliers. The ALE is a derivative of the EAU technology and is capable of simulating many of the active loads that currently cause integration challenges on modern MEA platforms. Such a device, combined with a proposed industry-wide effort to catalog electrical performance of various components, will enable both systems integrators and component suppliers to rapidly evaluate the electrical interactions of a particular component within the comprehensive EPS--with no need for the expensive laboratory space that is often accessible only to systems integrators working large-scale programs. Consequently, the ALE is a significant stepping stone in promoting understanding of the systems integration challenges inherent to modern MEA EPS work. Insight gained from appropriate utilization of ALE technology should spur innovation across commercial and military sectors of the aerospace power community. Currently, AFRL is leveraging PC Krause and Associates' extensive experience in modeling, simulation, analysis, and design of integrated power, thermal, and propulsion systems--in conjunction with the company's ALE technology--to explore the EAU's potential role as an integral part of the modern MEA EPS architecture.