ELECTRIC POWER SYSTEM (EPS)

Sistemi Spaziali - Anno Accademico 2009-2010

 Agenda

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

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 Introduction

 Purpose of the Power System

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

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 Introduction – Design process

Mission Profile
Identify Design requirements
Spacecraft Configuration
Requirements Electric power profile
Payload

EOL power requirements

Average Power load Select and size Type of power source
requirements power source Array size, mass and
configuration

Battery life cycle and

Average Power, eclipse
Select and size eclipse profile
(EO/SA) and peak power
energy storage Battery type
load requirements
Battery mass and volume

Power source and storage Select and design Regulation technique

selection and sizing power Distribution architecture
Load requirements distribution, Bus voltage
Thermal environment regulator and control Power control algorithm

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 Power Sources

 Primary Power Sources

 Primary Batteries
 Fuel Cells

 RTGs (Radio Isotope Generators)

 Nuclear Reactor

 Solar Dynamics

 Solar Cells

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 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
 Remotely activated silver zinc have been developed;
 reduced specific energy
 reliability concerns (over the activation process) limited its use.

 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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 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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 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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 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 GPHS DIPS

Topaz-I Topaz II SNAP ERATO UKSR Topaz-25 SP-100 STAR-C SPACE-R S-PRIME
RTGs RTGs RTGs
(Russia) (Russia) 10A (US) (France) (UK) (US) (US) (US) (US) (US)
(Russia) (US) (US)
8.50E-03 4.264 7.200 150.000 135 46.000 1100 1000 300 2300 74 611 486 kWth
0.0002 0.285 1.3 5 5.5 0.65 200 200 30 105 10 44 40 kWe
2.4% 6.7% 18.1% 3.3% 4.1% 1.4% 18.2% 20.0% 10.0% 4.6% 13.5% 7.2% 8.2% efficiency
0.5 56 215 980 1061 435 7000 8163 2330 4600 1148 2210 2187 kg
2500 196.5 165.4 196.0 192.9 669.2 35.0 40.8 77.7 43.8 114.8 50.2 54.7 kg/kWe

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 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-

Load
N +

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 Solar Arrays
 Multiple Junction cells:
 Increaseefficiency exploiting more spectrum
 Semiconductors connected in series with diode

Solar spectrum
_
Eg
Not usable InGaP 1.8 eV

InGaAs
1/Ephoton 1.4 eV

Junction 3 Ge
0.7 eV
Junction 2

Junction1 +

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 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

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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
 Mode Control Unit (MCU):
 Provide control function for BUS voltage in both sunlight and eclipse
 Battery Charge Regulator (BCR):
 Constant current control of battery charging; low charge rates improve lifetime of
battery
 Battery Discharge Regulator (BDR):
 Constant current drain of battery during eclipse operation
 Battery Management Unit (BMU)
 Monitors battery state and provides control signals to BCR and BDR; interface to
data handling system
 Power Conversion & Distribution Unit (PCDU)
 Monitor BUS current and controls against surge conditions etc; functionally responsible
for voltage regulated outputs

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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

Psa
A sa 
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:

PeTe
Cr  [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 battery’s Depth-Of-
Discharge
 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).
0.693
 t
Pt  P0e 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 60 70 80 90 100
years

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

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