Rolls-royce Corporation

Rolls-royce North American Technologies Inc.

Rolls-royce Singapore Pte. Ltd.

Other

Rolls-royce Deutschland Ltd & Co. Kg

Rolls-royce Electrical Norway As

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Stephen Andrew Long

David Reginald Trainer

Michael P Dougherty

Chandana Jayampathi Gajanayake

Michael Adam Zagrodnik

Souvik Dasgupta

Lihua Hu

Dwayne Bevis

Suvajit Mukherjee

Gabriel Ooi

John James Anthony Cullen

Firman Sasongko

Sean Guitar

Tomasz Marek Lubecki

Stephen Mark Husband

Michael James Armstrong

Kaushik Rajashekara

Rolando Burgos

Dushan Boroyevich

David Russell Trawick

Huw Llewelyn Edwards

Peter Michael Schenk

John J A Cullen

David James Powell

Sean Andrew Morgan

Andrew Mark Bollman

Graham Burkholder

Gareth Edward Moore

Fred Wang

David Locascio

Ruxi Wang

Thomas C J Feehally

David Kopeschka

Mark McLaren

Kolbeinn Kristjansson

Angus G L Moodie

Harsh Agarwal

Ashish Rakhit

Ross Moffett

Stephen E Cannon

Michael S Juenke

Linhua Hu

Thomas Conan Joseph Feehally

An example hybrid aircraft propulsion system includes one or more power units configured to output electrical energy onto one or more electrical busses; a plurality of propulsors; and a plurality of electrical machines, each respective electrical machine configured to drive a respective propulsor of the plurality of propulsors using electrical energy received from at least one of the one or more electrical busses.

Hybrid propulsion systems

A thermal management system for an energy storage system, the energy storage system comprising an energy storage device, an energy storage monitoring system including circuitry dedicated and configured to monitor a temperature of the energy storage device. The thermal management system comprises: a thermal management conditioning loop, a pump configured to circulate a thermal management fluid through the thermal management conditioning loop, a heat source, and a heat transfer hardware in thermal communication with the energy storage device. An energy storage controller of the energy storage monitoring system is configured to confirm that a temperature of the thermal management fluid and/or a temperature of the energy storage device is below an upper safety limit, between a lower control limit and an upper control limit, or both, and in response, to send an enable heater request indicating the heat source is to turn on.

Energy storage system heater control architecture

Methods of controlling an in-line heater for an energy storage device are provided. A determination is made that a pump is running. When running, the pump circulates a thermal management fluid through a thermal management conditioning loop, which includes the in-line heater and a heat transfer hardware configured to transfer heat between the thermal management fluid and the energy storage device, wherein the in-line heater is in thermal communication with the thermal management fluid. The in-line heater is turned on in response to the determination that the pump is running and a temperature of the thermal management fluid is below a lower control limit.

Energy storage system heater control methods

A propulsion system for an aircraft includes a propeller assembly, a controller, and a pump system. The propeller assembly includes a propeller and a power system, the power system including an electric motor and a motor converter. The controller is connected to the power system and configured to switch the power system into a power-off arrangement in response to a temperature of the motor converter being greater than a threshold temperature. The pump system includes a pump and a coolant circuit that cools the motor converter. The pump is coupled to the propeller and to the motor such that rotation of either drives the pump.

Propeller driven backup cooling pump system for electric motor converter

An example system comprises an electric machine including a stator and a rotor, a cooling system configured to supply a cooling fluid to cool the electric machine, and a stator tube configured to contain the cooling fluid within a stator portion of the electric machine and prevent the cooling fluid from contacting the rotor.

Electric machine cooling of stator with tube

An example system includes a throttle control for managing power in a hybrid propulsion system that includes an electrical propulsion unit configured to operate using electrical energy sourced from an electrical energy storage system (ESS) and/or one or more electrical generators, the throttle control comprising: a control lever movable through a plurality of positions, the plurality of positions including: a regeneration position; an off position; a maximum electric only position; a maximum continuous dual source position; and a maximum non-continuous dual source position.

Hybrid propulsion system cockpit interface

Systems and methods are disclosed for providing flexible, scalable, and controllable electrical power to an aircraft. In some embodiments, a modular power unit comprises a container containing a power generation unit, a control system, a conditioning system, and an environmental control system. The power generation unit produces a generated power. The control system provides control signals to the power generation unit and controls at least one parameter of the generated power. The conditioning system receives and conditions the generated power and provides an output power to the power bus of the aircraft. The environmental control system provides a temperature regulating fluid to the power generation unit.

Modular power units for aircraft

A hybrid interchangeable battery evaluation tool (HIBET) is provided. HIBET determines an amount of electrical energy and an amount of jet fuel necessary for a hybrid electric aircraft to complete a flight based on a range of the flight, a payload of the hybrid electric aircraft, an indication of a battery mass limitation of the hybrid electric aircraft, and an optimization of an energy split between the electrical energy and the jet fuel. HIBET causes an indication of the amount of electrical energy to be displayed in a graphical user interface and/or to be otherwise outputted.

Method and tool for optimizing fuel/electrical energy storage allocation for hybrid-electric aircraft

In some examples, a system includes a load configured to generate propulsion based on power received from a bus via a power converter. The system also includes a controller configured to determine that a voltage magnitude on the bus is not less than a threshold level in a first instance and cause the power converter to deliver a first magnitude of power to the load in response to determining that the voltage magnitude is not less than the threshold level in the first instance. The controller is also configured to determine that the voltage magnitude on the bus is less than the threshold level in a second instance and cause the power converter to deliver a second magnitude of power to the load in response to determining that the voltage magnitude is less than the threshold level in the second instance, the second magnitude being less than the first magnitude.

Control for a target common bus voltage

In some examples, a system includes a bus and a first power converter connected to the bus. The system also includes a second power converter connected to the bus, the second power converter having a topology different from the topology of the first power converter. The system further includes a power source and an energy storage device connected to the bus via the first and second power converters, respectively. In addition, the system includes a source controller configured to control the first power converter and a storage controller configured to control the second power converter. The system also includes a system controller configured to determine a first set point for the first power converter, transmit an indication of the first set point to the source controller, determine a second set point for the second power converter, and transmit an indication of the second set point to the storage controller.

In some examples, a system includes an energy storage device configured to deliver power to a bus or receive power from a bus via a power converter. The system also includes a controller configured to determine that a voltage magnitude on the bus is less than a first threshold level in a first instance and cause the energy storage device to deliver power to the bus in response to determining that the voltage magnitude is less than the first threshold level. The controller is also configured to determine that the voltage magnitude on the bus is greater than a second threshold level in the second instance, wherein the second threshold level is greater than a first threshold level and cause the energy storage device to receive power from the bus in response to determining that the voltage magnitude is greater than the second threshold level.

An example hybrid aircraft propulsion system includes one or more parallel propulsion units, each of the parallel propulsion units comprising: a first propulsor; a gas turbine engine configured to drive the first propulsor; and an electrical machine selectively configurable to: generate, for output via one or more electrical busses, electrical energy using mechanical energy derived from the first propulsor or the gas turbine engine; and drive the first propulsor using electrical energy received via the one or more electrical busses; and one or more series propulsion units, each of the series propulsion units comprising: a second propulsor; and an electrical machine selectively configurable to: generate, for output via the one or more electrical busses, electrical energy using mechanical energy derived from the second propulsor or the gas turbine engine; and drive the second propulsor using electrical energy received from one or more electrical busses.

An example hybrid aircraft propulsion system includes a plurality of electrical busses comprising a propulsion bus, a critical bus, and a non-critical bus; an electrical energy storage system coupled to each of the plurality of electrical busses; one or more power units configured to generate and output electrical energy via the propulsion bus; one or more electrical machines configured to drive respective propulsors using electrical energy received via the propulsion bus; one or more hotel loads configured to receive energy via the non-critical bus; and one or more critical loads configured to receive energy via the critical bus.

Electrical architecture for hybrid propulsion

Growing community of inventors

Carmel, IN, United States of America

Stephen Andrew Long