An Optimal Bipolar MVDC Coaxial Power Cable Design for Envisaged All Electric Wide Body Aircraft

Future generations of electrified aircraft, such as more electric aircraft (MEA) and all-electric aircraft (AEA), will require high-power-delivery and low-system-mass electric power systems (EPS). Designing aircraft cables confronts thermal challenges due to the limited heat transfer by convection at a cruising altitude of 12.2 km (18.8 kPa) for wide-body aircraft. These thermal challenges are exacerbated by implementing bipolar MVDC EPSs which are formed of two adjacent power cables, conventionally. In this regard, coaxial geometry for cables can be evaluated as a solution to this problem. In this paper, a coaxial MVDC power cable is, for the first time, designed with inner and outer conductors carrying the same ampacity of 1000 A when the voltage of the inner and outer conductors is −5 kV and +5 kV, respectively. This design compares the effectiveness of coaxial power cables to the conventional arrangement of bipolar MVDC cable systems. This study will analyze three case studies to determine if a coaxial geometry is better than a conventional arrangement for a bipolar MVDC cable system or not. According to the findings of this study, coaxial cable requires thicker insulation and more conductors to maintain the same maximum electric field norm within cable insulation and ampacity. As a result, coaxial cables result in a greater mass and cross-sectional area than standard bipolar cables. For the envisaged AEA, the investigation in this paper addresses questions about the performance of coaxial geometry for bipolar MVDC power cables.