Supervisors: Prof. Hans Kemper (FH Aachen) , Dr Hamid Khayyam (RMIT) , A/Prof Abhijit Date (RMIT) and A/Prof Stefania Castelletto (RMIT)
Option 1 Thermomanagement of Li-Ion Batteries for eVtols
Project: Batteries for electric aircraft must meet stringent requirements in terms of mechanical, electrical, thermal and safety behaviour. This will be even more challenging as it can be expected, that the cell to module to pack to fuselage integration will be optimized to a cell to fuselage design. This project shall contribute to the optimal layout and design of thermal management systems by simulation and analysis using 3D finite element tools for such upcoming integration conditions.
Option 2 Safe Battery Operation in Aerial Applications
Project: The failure of battery systems during flight is one of the most critical situations for electric propulsion. In this project, possible failure mechanisms shall be identified, assessed (hazard analysis, FMEA) and analysed in depth to define appropriate reaction schemes to avoid the failure. Possible non-destroying, in-situ detection and diagnosis strategies shall be defined, developed, applied and compared to existing standard measures. The reduction of the failure probability shall be predicted.
Option 3 System Design for Aerial Fuel Cell Applications
Project: Fuel cell based propulsion systems in aircrafts have to reach the same safety level as today’s conventional propulsors. Means of modularization, redundancy, smart topology, diagnoseability, “state of health” predictability have to be utilized to find technical solutions for the electric power systems consisting of fuel cells, batteries, inverters, electric machines, and others. A general methodology has to be developed to layout, analyse, assess and compare the power systems for such aircrafts.