An Energy Management Strategy for Aeronautical Hybrid Propulsion Systems Based on an MPC Supervisor

In the last decades, the requirement related to the reduction of energy waste has been focused on the aeronautical field for decreasing CO₂ emissions in propulsion systems, coupled with the possibility of improving their ecological sustainability. Performance of hybrid electric aircraft are affected by the sizes and weights of propulsion systems typically constituted of internal combustion engines and electric motors. Therefore, the correct design of propulsive architectures is fundamental to ensure a desired state of charge target level of batteries compliant with the flight plan provided by a driver unit. A Linear Time Variant Model Predictive Control (LTV-MPC) strategy for energy management purposes of an aeronautical hybrid powertrain is proposed in the present work. The MPC, designed as a supervisor, provides the best trade-off between command torques of motors belonging to a parallel-hybrid propulsion system to guarantee the final state of charge as close as possible to the initial one. Furthermore, the MPC ensures the following of the target flight plan, typically called mission, imposed by the driver. A lumped parameters dynamical model of an 8-seat aircraft is presented for testing the capability of the proposed LTV-MPC to manage a hybrid powertrain composed of an internal combustion engine and an electric motor described by maps. The proposed LTV-MPC supervisor is suitable to be employed in the aeronautical field to handle, in real-time, hybrid propulsion systems thanks to its reduced computational effort coupled with its capability to reduce CO2 emissions.