Victor Dos Santos, third year PhD student at the IRT Saint Exupéry, got the first place of the GEET Doctoral School Congress Contest which took place at Jean Jaures University Blagnac IUT, 5th of April.
The GEET Doctoral School Congress Contest allowed PhDs to present their thesis works in the field of electrical engineering, electronics and telecommunications.
Four others IRT Saint Exupéry PhDs have also presented their research in electrical engineering sessions.
The high quality and the relevance of Victor’s presentation highlights the efficiency of public/private collaboration thanks to the Institutes of Technology model. This thesis is supervised by the Laplace and IRT Saint Exupéry.
In a more electrical aircraft, all electromechanical chain components have to be compact, efficient and reliable.
Victor’s research focuses on the simulation and testing of these components by taking into account of EMC constraints as part of INTEGRATION project.
THESIS SUBJECT
“Electromechanical drive modeling and parametric optimization in order to minimize the common mode current.”
About his thesis
The aircraft industry is pushing towards the concept of More Electric Aircraft (MEA) to improve aircraft performance. This requires the use of electromechanical power drive systems. However, power converters will only be effectively used in future aircrafts if they are compact, efficient and reliable. All these aspects can be improved by the use of disruptive technology such as the so-called Wide Bandgap (WBG) semiconductors made of Silicon Carbide (SiC) or Gallium Nitride (GaN). These components can switch much faster than their silicon counterpart, which can reduce converter losses and also decrease differential mode filter given the increase of switching frequency. However, such a fast commutation increases Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) issues in the converter and loads connected to it. It is against this background that the present study was set in collaboration with the French Institute of Technology (IRT) Saint-Exupery and Laplace laboratory. The scientific objectives of the thesis are the following ones:
- High frequency modeling of the electromechanical chain (Inverter Si or SiC + Harness (2 to 10 meters length) + aeronautical electric engine);
- Identification of the EMI impacts of an inverter made up of SiC MOSFETs;
- Sensitivity studies of the components of the electromechanical chain on the common mode current;
- Global optimization of the electromechanical chain to minimize the total mass and losses taking into account EMC constraints.
INTEGRATION Project
Optimization of the electromechanical chain by increasing electrical system power density, and reducing the weight of all components by working on 3-D power module integration, converter architecture, and motor iron losses.
PUBLICATIONS
Victor Dos Santos, Bernardo Cougo, Bruno Sareni, Nicolas Roux, Bertrand Revol and Jean-Pierre Carayon: “Trade-off between Losses and EMI Issues in Three-Phase SiC Inverters for Aircraft Applications.”
EMC 2017 (Electromagnetic Compatibility, Signal and Power Integrity), Washington, USA (2017)
Victor Dos Santos, Nicolas Roux, Bertrand Revol, Bruno Sareni, Bernardo Cougo and Jean-Pierre Carayon: “Unshielded Cable modeling for Conducted Emissions Issues in Electrical Power Drive Systems.”
EMC Europe 2017, Angers, France (2017)
Bernardo Cougo, Victor Dos Santos, Alaa Hilal and Duc-Hoan Tran: “Trade-off between Losses and EMI Issues in Three-Phase SiC Inverters for More Electrical Aircrafts.”
MEA 2017 (More Electrical Aircraft), Bordeaux, France (2017)
Bernardo Cougo, Jean-Pierre Carayon, Victor Dos Santos, Alaa Hilal and Thibaut Billard: “Impacts of the use of SIC semiconductors in actuations systems.”
R3ASC’16 (Recent Advances in Aerospace Actuation Systems and Components), Toulouse, France (2016)