Component-Level Modeling of More Electric Auxiliary Power Units for Cooperative Control

Today, the more electric aircraft (MEA) concept is gaining tremendous popularity. As a key component of the MEA, a more electric auxiliary power unit (MEAPU) integrated model with high accuracy and real-time performance is essential when conducting cooperative control and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) test research. This paper proposes a novel MEAPU integrated model consisting of a MEAPU component-level-model (CLM) and a starter-generator (SG) model. Firstly, a MEAPU CLM was built and a continuous scaling method for the component characteristic map in the CLM is proposed to improve the model’s accuracy. Then, a double winding induction starter-generator (DWISG) model based on the electromagnetic theory, which is quite time consuming, was simplified using the pulse width modulation (PWM) rectifier linearization method. Finally, considering the coupling relationship between the MEAPU CLM and DWISG, an accurate real-time MEAPU integrated model was built and its simulation results were analyzed. Compared with the test results, the error of the proposed model was less than 0.5%; meanwhile its single-step simulation time was less than 20 ms, which can meet the demands of cooperative control and HIL test research. Furthermore, the continuous scaling method and PWM rectifier linearization method were found to be effective for modeling other MEAPUs and more electric engines (MEE).