A Modular Real Time Simulation Solution for More Electric Aircraft Complex Architecture

This paper presents a Multi FPGA- based solution for More Electric Aircraft power systems real-time simulation. The proposed solution allows control and protection devices to be designed and tested in virtual power system before they can be implemented in a physical system. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the multi-FPGA solution, a model approximately representing the Boeing 787 More Electric Aircraft is considered. The B787 power system represents a challenge for any real time simulator. It includes a considerable number of fast and slow switching frequency converters, an extensive number of circuit breakers and very short cables that complicates the power decoupling task.Four complete feeders of the B787 power system are simulated using Dual-Kintex-7 FPGA boards. The controllers and mechanical parts of the Motorized Turbo Compressors are compiled, and real time simulated using a 3.5 GHz Intel processor. The performance of this overall Processor-In-The-Loop integration (PIL) is validated based on two criteria: 1) Evaluation of the results accuracy compared to the reference offline simulation. 2) Evaluation of the numerical stability of the simulation under steady state and fault conditions.