ELECTRIC POWER SYSTEM (EPS)

Sistemi Spaziali - Anno Accademico 2009-2010

Agenda

Introduction Power Sources Power Storage Power Distribution Power Regulation and Control Preliminary sizing

Sistemi Spaziali - EPS

2009-2010

Introduction

Purpose of the Power System

Power Source

Energy Storage

Power

Power Distribution

Power Regulation & Control

Supply a continuous source of electric power to spacecraft loads during mission life Control and distribute electrical power to spacecraft Support power requirements for average and peak electrical power Provide converters for ac and regulated dc power buses Provide command and telemetry capability for EPS health and status as well as control by ground station and/or an autonomous system Protect the spacecraft payload against failures within EPS Suppress transient bus voltages and protect against bus faults

Sistemi Spaziali - EPS

2009-2010

Introduction Design process

Mission Profile Spacecraft Configuration Payload Identify Requirements Design requirements Electric power profile EOL power requirements Type of power source Array size, mass and configuration Battery life cycle and eclipse profile Battery type Battery mass and volume

Average Power load requirements

Select and size power source

Average Power, eclipse (EO/SA) and peak power load requirements

Select and size energy storage

Power source and storage selection and sizing Load requirements Thermal environment

Select and design power distribution, regulator and control

Regulation technique Distribution architecture Bus voltage Power control algorithm

Sistemi Spaziali - EPS

2009-2010

Power Sources

Primary Power Sources

Primary

Batteries Fuel Cells RTGs (Radio Isotope Generators) Nuclear Reactor Solar Dynamics Solar Cells

Sistemi Spaziali - EPS

2009-2010

Primary batteries

Silver-zinc:

high specific energy (~100 Wh/kg) storage life is short once the electrolyte has been added; acceptable for launchers but need to replace batteries in case of long launch delays reduced specific energy reliability concerns (over the activation process) limited its use.

Remotely activated silver zinc have been developed;

Lithium sulphur dioxide and lithium thionyl chloride:

scientific applications requiring long storage life; excellent specific energies (up to 300 Wh/kg), voltage delay when first used after a long period of storage.

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2009-2010

Fuel Cells

A fuel cell is a device that directly converts the chemical energy of reactants (a fuel and an oxidant) into low-voltage electricity, via electrochemical reactions. It is similar to a conventional chemical battery

The main difference is that in the ordinary battery, the fuel is the built-in expendable electrode. When this electrode is depleted, the battery is either dead or requires recharging in order to restore the chemical state of the electrode. A fuel cell is a converter only, using an external fuel supply. Since ideally no part of a fuel cell should undergo any irreversible chemical change, it can continue to operate as long as it is fed a suitable fuel and oxidant and the reaction products are removed.

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2009-2010

Fuel Cells

Because of its high energy density when stored as a cryogenic liquid, hydrogen has become the fuel of choice for aerospace applications.

The corresponding oxidant is liquid oxygen. The fuel and oxidant typically will be stored as stechiometric amounts of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. Energy is released when two hydrogen molecules (2H2) exothermally combine with an oxygen molecule (O2). The reaction releases two free electrons, and the waste product is water which may be an advantage for manned missions).

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2009-2010

Nuclear power in space

The plot and the table summarise all nuclear power sources either already developed or under study. Red columns represent already developed systems Green columns are under study and not yet flying

Pantera RTGs (Russia) 8.50E-03 0.0002 2.4% 0.5 2500

GPHS RTGs (US) 4.264 0.285 6.7% 56 196.5

DIPS Topaz-I Topaz II SNAP ERATO RTGs (Russia) (Russia) 10A (US) (France) (US) 7.200 150.000 135 46.000 1100 1.3 18.1% 215 165.4 5 3.3% 980 196.0 5.5 4.1% 1061 192.9 0.65 1.4% 435 669.2 200 18.2% 7000 35.0

UKSR (UK) 1000 200 20.0% 8163 40.8

Topaz-25 (US) 300 30 10.0% 2330 77.7

SP-100 (US) 2300 105 4.6% 4600 43.8

STAR-C SPACE-R S-PRIME (US) (US) (US) 74 10 13.5% 1148 114.8 611 44 7.2% 2210 50.2 486 kWth 40 8.2% 2187 54.7 kWe efficiency kg kg/kWe

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2009-2010

RTGs

The design of an RTG is simple by the standards of nuclear technology:

the main component is a sturdy container of a radioactive material (the fuel). Thermocouples are placed in the walls of the container, with the outer end of each thermocouple connected to a heat sink. Radioactive decay of the fuel produces heat which flows through the thermocouples to the heat sink, generating electricity in the process.

A thermocouple is a thermoelectric device that converts thermal energy directly into electrical energy using the Seebeck effect.

It is made of two kinds of metal (or semiconductors) that can both conduct electricity connected in a closed loop. If the two junctions are at different temperatures, an electric current will flow in the loop.
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RTGs

The radioactive material used in RTGs must have several characteristics:

The half-life must be long enough that it will produce energy at a relatively continuous rate for a reasonable amount of time.

However, at the same time, the half-life needs to be short enough so that it decays sufficiently quickly to generate a usable amount of heat. Typical half-lives for radioisotopes used in RTGs are therefore several decades, although isotopes with shorter half-lives could be used for specialized applications.

For spaceflight use, the fuel must produce a large amount of energy per mass and volume (density). It should produce high energy radiation that has low penetration, preferably alpha radiation.

Beta radiation can give off considerable amounts of Gamma/X-ray radiation, thus requiring heavy shielding. Isotopes must not produce significant amounts of gamma, neutron radiation or penetrating radiation in general through other decay modes or decay chain products.

Pu238 has the lowest shielding requirements and longest half-life

has a half-life of 87.7 years, losing 0.787% of their capacity per year reasonable energy density exceptionally low gamma and neutron radiation levels

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RTGs

Thermocouples, though very reliable and long-lasting, are very inefficient;

Most RTGs have efficiencies between 3-7%.

Dynamic generators can provide power at more than 4 times the conversion efficiency of RTGs.

NASA and DOE have been developing a next-generation radioisotope-fueled power source called the Stirling Radioisotope Generator (SRG) that uses free-piston Stirling engines coupled to linear alternators to convert heat to electricity. SRG prototypes demonstrated an average efficiency of 23%

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Nuclear reactor

Nuclear reactor
Based

on fission of Uranium High Power High Mass (shielding)

Solution for human base on mars

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Solar thermal

Solar Dynamics are systems that:

Provide higher efficiencies for solar power production Instead of direct conversion of solar power into electricity as with solar photovoltaics, solar dynamic systems use solar power to heat a working fluid to drive a heat engine which is used to generate electricity.

The advantage of solar dynamic systems over solar photovoltaic systems is that dynamic systems in general

have a higher thermal efficiency (30%) can be used for higher power levels.

A solar dynamic system consists of four basic components,

the collector/concentrator, receiver, thermal storage material, the heat engine.

The power conversion cycle can be any of the common thermodynamic cycles: Rankine, Brayton, or Stirling.
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Solar Arrays

Solar cell assembly

Solar Cells Cover glass connectors

Substrate Mechanism

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Solar Arrays

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Solar Arrays

Solar cells are semiconductors in which light of even relatively low energy, such as visible photons, can kick electrons out of the valence band and into the higher-energy conduction band, creating electric current at a voltage related to the bandgap energy Each semiconductor has its own bandgap energy and can expoit only a small interval of photon frequency (energy)
Photons

grid

e-

N P

Load

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Solar Arrays

Multiple Junction cells:

Increase

efficiency exploiting more spectrum Semiconductors connected in series with diode

Solar spectrum

_
Eg
InGaP

Not usable 1/Ephoton

Junction 3 Junction 2 Junction1

1.8 eV

InGaAs

1.4 eV

Ge

0.7 eV

+
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2009-2010

Solar Cells

Solar Cells technology:

mono crystalline silicon cells:

well proven base technology in steady state performance ( around 35 50 W/kg 13% EOL)

multi-junction cells:

well proven based technology in constant evolution of performance (23% to 28% targeted EOL): efficiency gain, radiation resistance gain but with critical technologies

thin-film cells:

in pre-development to evaluate potential of mass, cost gain with critical technology as thin substrate (metal foil or polymer)

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Solar Arrays performances

Solar cells performance vary with:

Radiation Temperature Light intensity

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Solar Arrays performances

Increasing artificially the light on the cells the efficiency can increase

Solar concentrator are of two type

Mirrors Lens

Increasse light on the cell, but require more area

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Power Storage

Power Storage and Secondary Power Sources

Secondary

Batteries (accumulators) Regenerative Fuel Cells Flywheels

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Secondary Batteries

Technology description

Electrochemical charge/discharge reactions Discharge: chemical energy is converted into electrical energy Charge: energy is reconverted into chemical energy

Main performance criteria

Specific energy (Wh/kg) Specific power (W/kg) Cycle number (vs DOD) Energy loss (%) Energy density (Wh/l)

Products

Nickel cadmium (Ni-Cd) Nickel hydrogen (Ni-H2) Lithium Ion (Li-ion) Advanced Li
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Secondary Batteries

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Secondary Batteries

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Regenerative Fuel Cells

In discharge mode produce Water In charge mode water is divided in Oxygen and Hydrogen using electrolysis

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Flywheels

Flywheel Energy Storage (FES) works by accelerating a rotor (flywheel) to a very high speed and maintaining the energy in the system as rotational energy.

The energy is converted back by slowing down the flywheel. They can be used at 80% DoD even for the longest required cycle life applications. The wheels alone have achieved specific energies comparable to battery cells, but wheel accounts for only some 25% of the mass of a complete flywheel system.

Flywheels other main advantage is their very high power capability One way of reducing the overall spacecraft mass is to combine flywheel energy storage with the attitude control system but this itself is a non-trivial challenge

Sistemi Spaziali - EPS

2009-2010

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Power Distribution

The power distribution system consists of:

cabling fault protection and switch gear to turn on and off spacecraft loads command decoders to command specific loads

Power distribution architecture depends

on the dimension and complexity of the spacecraft on the demands in terms of power. Two architecture can be considered:

distributed: each load has its own dedicated feeding and control system centralized: everything is controlled from the central bus

Bus voltage depend on the required power, in general:

28V bus for small medium spacecrafts with a total power of less than 2kW 100V-150V bus for big spacecrafts with a total power of more than 2kW

Cabling and harness mass can count for a 15-25% of the total EPS mass
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Power regulation and control

Power regulation and control system is in charge of regulating:

the power distributed to the loads current and voltage of the bus charge/discharge cycle of the battery

The bus voltage control can be:

unregulated quasi-regulated fully regulated

Power and energy transfer to loads and battery can be performed by:

Direct Energy Transfer systems Peak Power Tracking systems

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Power regulation and control

The regulation and control system can be formed by the following elements:

Shunt Dump Module (SDM):

selectively switches in/out individual solar array strings to meet load demand variation Frequently: sequential switching shunt regulation S3R Provide control function for BUS voltage in both sunlight and eclipse

Mode Control Unit (MCU):

Battery Charge Regulator (BCR):

Constant current control of battery charging; low charge rates improve lifetime of battery
Constant current drain of battery during eclipse operation Monitors battery state and provides control signals to BCR and BDR; interface to data handling system Monitor BUS current and controls against surge conditions etc; functionally responsible for voltage regulated outputs
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Battery Discharge Regulator (BDR):

Battery Management Unit (BMU) Power Conversion & Distribution Unit (PCDU)

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Preliminary sizing

Solar Array sizing:

First

Step: identify worst case

Maximum

time in eclipse Te and correspondent time in daylight Td Maximum total power requirements in eclipse Pe and in daylight Pd Compute the total power required Psa considering an efficiency factor in eclipse Xe and in daylight Xd

DET: Xe = 0.65 Xd=0.85 PPT: Xe = 0.60 Xd=0.80

Pe Te Pd Td + X Xd Psa e Td

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Preliminary sizing

Second Step: identify power source characteristics

For solar arrays compute the power generated at Beginning Of Life (BOL) PBOL

PBOL P0 I d cos

Id is the inherent degradation factor (0.49-0.88) and P0 is in W/m2 is the specific power at 1AU for the selected solar cells (including efficiency) Estimate solar array degradation factor Ld ( d = 3.75% for Si d=2.75% for GaAs)

Ld (1 d)lifetime

Compute the power produced at End Of Life (EOL) PEOL

PEOL PBOLLd

Compute the total area required

A sa Psa PEOL

and the correspondent mass (typical density of 40-50 W/kg)

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Preliminary sizing

Battery sizing:

The DOD or Depth-Of-Discharge is the percent of total battery capacity removed during a discharge period. That is to say the percentage of capacity that can be effectively used. The battery is dimensioned computing its capacity as a function of the required power in eclipse and its characteristic DOD. The capacity of a battery is defined as:

Cr

PeTe [Whr] (DOD) Nh

where

Pe is the average eclipse load in Watt Te is the correspondent maximum eclipse time in hours DOD is the limit on batterys Depth-OfDischarge N the number of batteries h transmission efficiency between batteries and load (around 0.9)

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Preliminary sizing

RTGs power

For RTGs power degradation is an exponential function of time due to the decay of the radioactive material (ex. plutonium).

Pt P0e

0.693 t t

P0 = beginning of life power t = half life period of the radioactive material

RTG degradation
450

400

350
Power [W]

300

250

200

150 0

10

20

30

40

50 years

60

70

80

90

100

Example: Plutonium 238 has a power density (W/g) of 0.41 and an half life of 86.4 years.
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