Metal composite T-junction terminals for MW-class aerospace electric power distribution

There is a recent surge in activity to develop high power electric (or hybrid electric) aircraft. Part of this development effort is the creation of lightweight and small volume high-performance motors and airborne power transmission cables. As part of the power transmission of a distributed propuls...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of physics. Conference series 2021-07, Vol.1975 (1), p.12036
Main Authors: Kovacs, C J, Haugan, T J, Sumption, M D
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aircraft
Airport terminals
Aluminum
Cables
Composite structures
Contact resistance
Copper
Electric contacts
Electric power distribution
Electricity distribution
High temperature
Magnetoresistance
Magnetoresistivity
Motors
Operating temperature
Power cables
Purity
Thermal expansion
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Summary:There is a recent surge in activity to develop high power electric (or hybrid electric) aircraft. Part of this development effort is the creation of lightweight and small volume high-performance motors and airborne power transmission cables. As part of the power transmission of a distributed propulsion aircraft will be T-terminals to extract power to individual motors from a “main” power cable. In this research, a standard pressed plate high purity Cu T-terminal, with cylindrical high-temperature superconducting cables (main cable current of 20 kA, branch cable current of 2.5 kA), were investigated using Multiphysics simulations. Then, a more geometrically optimized high purity Al-Cu composite T-terminal was simulated under similar conditions. Discussed are the influence of T-junction geometry, operating temperature (30 to 50 K), contact resistance, and magnetoresistance on joule losses of terminals with different masses. It is shown the Al-Cu terminal can greatly reduce joule losses/mass of the T-terminal while also having an intrinsic clamping force from thermal expansion of the Al shell of the composite structure.
ISSN:1742-6588
1742-6596
DOI:10.1088/1742-6596/1975/1/012036