Modeling and simulation of commercial aircraft electrical systems

In this thesis a modeling and simulation based methodology is proposed to study the general power flow and dynamics of commercial aircraft electrical systems. This was done by creating a toolset composed of the crucial elements to model an aircraft electrical system that consists of power sources, power conversion, power distribution, and electrical loads. The considerations for the component models were modularity, computation time, accuracy, ease of use, and an integration with other aircraft system components. The individual components were modeled to be interchangeable and interface with the other components. Several techniques were used to simplify each component model and reduce the computational resources while still maintaining the component dynamic behavior and interactions. A MATLAB/Simulink platform was used to build the components because it is a resource available to others. An average model approach was used for some of the components because the "fast" dynamics will appear as transients to the other aircraft systems like the thermal system. The component models were used to model and simulate the electrical system in faster than real time for a real mission. The sample aircraft architecture that was modeled was that of the Boeing 737, a typical twin-engine aircraft. Aside from the components that were modeled, the various simulations were performed using a sample flight profile of an aircraft, which details parameters of flight over time, and an engine model developed in Numerical Propulsion System Simulation (NPSS). The following scenarios were simulated: no fault or failure, temporary disconnection between generator and load, and single-generator failure. All of the simulations were conducted using a similar flight profile with small adjustments for the single-generator failure scenario