Prashanth Ramesh is a researcher with over 9 years of experience working at the Center of Automotive Research at The Ohio State University. In his role as Research Specialist, his research focuses on batteries and their application to mobility, specifically in electric vehicles. Ramesh has knowledge and experience in fundamental modeling of battery performance and degradation and control algorithm development for diagnostics. Additionally Ramesh also manages battery testing facilities at the center with a focus on benchmarking of battery chemistries through electrical and thermal characterization.
Hybrid turboelectric distributed propulsion systems are one the most promising solutions to reduce fuel consumption and emissions in aviation. In general, hybrid architectures require a higher number of components, which may increase the aircraft weight, so it is important to accurately design the energy and thermal management system of the powertrain to enable an optimal use of the electrical and fuel energy throughout the mission. This works describes the development of a real-time flight, thermal and propulsion control for a series-parallel hybrid turboelectric architecture, which guarantee the aircraft follows the desired mission profile, and determine the control variables to optimally use the battery and the engine in terms of electrical power and cooling requirements. The developed controller is tested and validated in a Hardware In the Loop framework that includes a realistic model of the airframe and related powertrain and the physical communication interface between the control and the powertrain. The robustness of the controller is tested considering signal discretization effects and communication delays.
Attendees will learn the fundamentals behind the design and development of energy management and flight controller for hybrid electric regional aircrafts. Hardware in the loop testing of developed controller for real time testing and simulation of different flight scenarios.
