Analysis of Regenerative Energy Potential in More Electric Aircraft (MEA)

Optimum utilization of Electrical Energy on board an aircraft is a major concern because the aircraft technology is advancing more towards an electrically optimized aircraft. The major objective of More Electric Aircraft is that it basically uses Electrical Energy instead of conventional mechanical, pneumatic or hydraulic energy. This improves the response time of the systems on aircraft to a considerable extent and also reduces weight of the aircraft. This Paper shows how Regenerative Energy on a MEA can be used in an efficient manner rather than wasting it as Heat on damping resistors which is a norm today. Control surfaces like Flaps, Ailerons, Rudder etc of the aircraft are potential regenerative energy areas which can be exploited to utilize this energy in a more energy efficient manner. In MEA Electromechanical (EMA) or Electro-hydraulic (EHA) actuators are used to actuate these control surfaces which allow bidirectional flow of power and hence giving an opportunity to harvest regenerative energy. In this paper an EMA is used which consists of dc-dc H bridge Converter, DC Motor, Rotational to Translational Interface and Aileron to show how regenerative power can be utilized with the help of Energy Storage Systems ESS.The simulation is carried out in MATLAB/Simulink and the results are presented. Citation:Shrey Shrikant Naik, Goa College ofEngineering,Farmagudi,Goa; Nilesh Shenvi Borkar ,Goa College of Engineering,Farmagudi,Goa; Raghavendra Naik ,Goa College of Engineering,Farmagudi,Goa. "Analysis of Regenerative Energy Potential in More Electric Aircraft (MEA)." Global Research and Development Journal For Engineering 16 2016: 87 - 91.