eVTOL

Fault tolerance and reliability for eVTOL drive inverters

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Marek Galek

This research project aims to optimise advanced propulsion converter technologies for use in electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing (eVTOL) aircraft in order to establish them as pioneers of environmentally friendly and innovative urban mobility. Due to their ability to revolutionise urban air transport, research activities focus on the investigation and optimisation of propulsion systems under the many challenging requirements. Weight and high power density are of much higher priority in such aircraft than in the automotive sector. However, the requirements for reliability and behaviour in the event of a fault are also very different. In hovering flight, for example, the failure of a drive unit can lead to catastrophic consequences. The probability of such a catastrophic failure occurring must be minimised by very high reliability, but also by fault-tolerant systems. The power consumption in hovering flight is also many times higher than in forward flight. This makes it difficult to optimise the power section for maximum power density.

The primary objective of the project is to design and evaluate an inverter concept that is tolerant of individual faults in the drive system and still takes secondary requirements into account. The large design variance of current eVTOL aircraft concepts makes it difficult to make generalised statements about optimal design. Overall, the inverter concept to be developed should have a robust, fault-tolerant architecture that integrates state-of-the-art technologies in the areas of semiconductors, thermal management and redundant system design, thus allowing scalability to a large number of eVTOL configurations. The aim is to achieve a balance between high efficiency, low weight, uncompromising safety and optimum performance in order to fulfil the safety and power density requirements of the urban air mobility market.

Project team members:

  • Niklas Krug

General information about the project:

  • Duration: 01.10.2022 - 31.12.2024

Projektpartner:

  • ERC Messen Steuern Regeln GmbH