Design Considerations to Optimise Supercapacitor-based Energy Storage Systems for Aerospace Applications

This paper investigates the design optimization of a supercapacitor-based energy storage system for aerospace applications which may be needed to complement the operation of a high power pulsed load such as electromechanical actuators have been proposed. Different designs of a supercapacitor (SC) stack to achieve minimum weight are investigated but this may cause suboptimal operation of the associated converter. To assess the impact on the weight of the converter, the weight of its key elements are assessed and shown that at system level an optimal solution can be found. Thermal stress analysis on the candidate supercapacitor cells is investigated to ensure the design solutions are valid.