Nemanja Asanin, “CLEAN: Cryogenic Link for Electric Aircraft Propulsion”
Mentor: Chanyeop Park, Electrical Engineering
Poster #114

 All-electric aircraft is a promising solution for zero-emission air travel. With numerous small motor-driven fans blended in the rear end of the airframe, these aircraft are more aerodynamically efficient. The aircraf uses a superconducting power system operating in liquid hydrogen for high efficiency and lightweight, while the electric propulsion motors operate at ambient. To minimize thermal linkage between the superconducting and the ambient sections, we propose CLEAN: Cryogenic Link for Electric Aircraft Propulsion. CLEAN consists of a dual active bridge (DAB) that converts power between cryogenic and ambient. The converter is magnetically coupled but electrically and thermally isolated, allowing for minimal thermal losses when connecting the supply to numerous fans running at ambient. Half of the bridge operates in liquid hydrogen, which is a coolant for superconductors, while the other half operates at an ambient, allowing for connections to multiple motors. My research is a part of the dual active bridge, and I am investigating the control of the bridge for it to handle a large leakage inductance. Phase shifting techniques of a dual active bridge are vital to getting the desired output. Using a proportional integral (PI) controller and a pulse width modulator (PWM), we can establish ideal phase shifting techniques to simulate the DAB accurately. The results were recorded under different loads and leakage inductances.