Investigation of Reflected Wave Phenomenon in WBG-Driven Aircraft Power System

The rise of wide band gap (WBG) technologies has led to a rise in the electrification of aircraft systems for a sustainable future with lower costs encouraged by favorable governmental policies. While WBG is efficient, it introduces overvoltages due to impedance mismatches, risking motor, and cable failure. Moreover, this surge in aircraft electrification stresses electrical wiring interconnect systems (EWIS). This research focuses on the length and frequency-extendable modeling of aircraft cables. The proposed cable model includes the characterization of high-frequency (HF) phenomena such as skin and proximity effect, mutual coupling, and common-mode (CM) parasitic elements. CM parasitic are crucial due to inconsistencies in grounding/shielding approaches, and cable layouts. Furthermore, with the advent of protection and monitoring requirements at the ends of cables serving as “unavoidable additional impedance network” (lead wires), this article studies the impact of infrastructural parasitic and the added impedance network on a reflected wave (RFW) modeling. Notably, this article provides an improved average approximation of the load overvoltage incorporating the impact of lead wires, varying dv/dt of WBG devices, and cable length. Lastly, the study concludes with a rigorous combination of experimentation and simulations, ensuring a comprehensive comparative analysis to validate the effectiveness of the proposed modeling approach.