Robust Control of Aeronautical Electrical Generators for Energy Management Applications

Abstract

A new strategy for the control of aeronautical electrical generators via sliding manifold selection is proposed, with an associated innovative intelligent energy management strategy used for efficient power transfer between two sources providing energy to aeronautical loads, having different functionalities and priorities. Electric generators used for aeronautical application involve several machines, including a main generator and an exciter. Standard regulators (PI or PID-like) are normally used for the rectification of the generator voltage to be used to supply a high-voltage DC bus. The regulation is obtained by acting on a DC/DC converter that imposes the field voltage of the exciter. In this paper, the field voltage is fed to the generator windings by using a second-order sliding mode controller, resulting into a stable, robust (against disturbances) action and a fast convergence to the desired reference. By using this strategy, an energy management strategy is proposed that dynamically changes the voltage set point, in order to intelligently transfer power between two voltage busses. Detailed simulation results are provided in order to show the effectiveness of the proposed energy management strategy in different scenarios.