Design of a novel flying capacitor multilevel buck-boost converter for electric aircraft de-icing applications

Under extreme weather conditions, the reliability of electric aircraft systems is challenged when the accumulated snow and ice can greatly interfere with normal operation. Electric pulse de-icing is a promising solution, due to its high efficiency and high power density. Challenges in pulse de-icing design include the high pulsing power rating and broad ranges of both the DC bus voltage and load voltage. A flying capacitor multi-level (FCML) converter can maintain a high power density, as the effective switching frequency at the switching node can be increased, which further reduces the filtering requirement and, hence, the size of filtering components. A buck-boost converter is able to conduct both wide step-up and step-down DC-DC conversions. Therefore, a novel topology, the FCML Buck-Boost converter topology, is proposed in this work. The operation theory and design considerations will be discussed. Simulation results, as well as the measurements of an experimental prototype, will be presented. The hardware prototype demonstrates a peak efficiency of 98.6% and a maximum power of 1100 W over a wide range of operating voltage.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.S.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Electrical & Computer Engr

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2022

Author dc:creator

• Zhu, Mingrui

Contributors dc:contributor

• Stillwell, Andrew

• Power Converter
• Power Electronics
• Pulse De-icing
• Pulse De-frosting
• Buck-boost Converter
• Flying Capacitor Multilevel (fcml) Converter

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2022 Mingrui Zhu

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/117688

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F117688