Virtual-prototyping satellite electrical power systems using the virtual test bed

Satellite electrical power subsystems (SEPS) consist of components of a wide range of power levels, complex nonlinear behaviors, and multiple disciplines. High manufacturing cost and complexity of SEPS make it essential to perform simulation studies and build virtual-prototypes prior to construction of real hardware. The Virtual Test Bed (VTB) provides a computational environment that allows rapid modeling, simulation and virtual-prototyping of such complex systems. The VTB is also endowed with mechanisms to import models, and to co-simulate with other standard software packages. In this paper, a representative satellite electrical power system is virtually prototyped in VTB to demonstrate: (1) modeling of interdisciplinary devices such as solar array and battery system, and other power devices such as power converters; (2) cosimulation using MatLab/Simulink models for battery charge/discharge controller, and protection circuits; and (3) virtual-prototyping and simulation of the system to optimize performance. The simulation study focuses on the dynamic behaviors of solar array and battery in orbit cycles, and the system responses under different fault conditions.