Protection and fault management strategy maps for future electrical propulsion aircraft

Electrical propulsion has been identified as a key enabler of greener, quieter, more efficient aircraft. However, electrical propulsion aircraft (EPA) will need to demonstrate a level of safety and fault management (FM) at least equal to current aircraft. This will rely heavily on the capability and design of the electrical FM system. Given the functional limitations and current lack of FM technologies suitable for a future EPA application, strategic development of FM devices is required. Whilst there are a variety of roadmaps for EPA concepts and key electrical components, the necessary development of FM solutions targeted towards EPA has yet to be established. This paper proposes FM strategy maps which go beyond projections of expected development in FM technologies to scope the feasibility of key FM solutions. This method can then be used to present FM technology projections, electrical oversizing and wider system redundancy alongside the EPA concepts in development. These strategy maps capture the impact of any FM technology barrier on the viability of a given EPA concept, enabling critical FM solutions to be integrated into the wider electrical system development. This marks a significant contribution to the development of robust, strategic electrical FM for future EPA concepts.