13.5 Electrical Power Flashcards
What are the main sources of DC and AC power on an aircraft?
- DC alternator
- DC generator
- AC alternator
- Battery
When is an aircraft’s battery typically used?
- No other sources of power are available
- For emergency operations
- Intermittent system overloads
What is a busbar?
A copper bar, located in distribution boxes, designed to carry the entire electrical load and distribute that load to the individual power users
What is the busbar connected to on almost all aircraft?
Positive output terminal of the generator and/or battery
What is the earth return?
The path of the negative voltage, distributed through the metal structure of the aircraft
What are the nominal voltages/frequencies of aircraft power?
- 28v DC
- 115v AC 400 Hz single phase
- 200v AC 400 Hz three phase
What do we do for the earth on a composite airframe?
- Two wires, one positive and one negative
- In other cases, a ground plane is added to the structure of the aircraft
How are busbars categorised, and further subdivided?
- AC and DC
- Subdivided to essential and non-essential
- Further, there are other buses which may be connected directly or indirectly to the battery, known as ‘hot bus’, ‘vital bus’ and ‘emergency bus’
What is a hot busbar?
A busbar that is permanently connected to the battery
What protective devices are used on an aircraft and what are we protecting against?
- Fuses
- Circuit breakers
- Cut-out relays
Protecting against short circuits, hazardous overvoltage and other malfunctions
How many extra fuses should be carried?
10% of the number of each rating (if one fuse is used on the aircraft of a particular rating, three spares should be provided)
or
three of each rating
whichever is greater
What is meant by the term trip-free circuit breaker?
A circuit breaker, which when an overload or circuit fault exists, they will open the circuit irrespective of the position of the operating control
Must not be of the type that can be overridden manually
What are essential and non-essential services?
Essential services are those that are required to ensure safe flight and landing in cases of emergency, such as; essential lighting, flight control systems, and communication and navigation radios
Non-essential services are all of those wouldn’t be included in the class above
What is the circuit protection requirement of essential loads?
Individual circuit protecting
What is the role of a static inverter?
Converts DC, supplied by the battery, into AC power
What is the role of a transformer rectifier unit?
AC power produced by the generator is converted to direct current
What is a split-bus system?
Gearbox driven generators can never be connected to the same distribution bus at the same time
What is a parallel bus system?
Entire electrical load is equally shared by all the working generators
Fuses/circuit breakers for essential circuits must be accessible to whom?
To the pilot or some other member of the crew
What is the physical relationship between batteries and busbars?
Located as near as possible to the main and battery busbars as physically possible
What type of batteries are usually used with metal trays without surface protection (a coating of a PVC)?
Alkaline batteries
If the flight crew are complaining of an acrid smell in the cockpit, what could be wrong as it pertains to the battery system?
Non-return valve is US, allowing corrosive fumes from the battery charging and discharging cycle to escape into the aircraft
Would be detected when using cabin pressurisation as a means to vent battery, and when negative pressure exists
What problems do we monitor batteries for?
- Temperature
- Current output
- Charging rate (linked with temperature monitoring)
What do the regulations state about the capacity of aircraft batteries?
Must provide 30 minutes of power to essential services
Describe the standby battery system?
- Independent of the DC power system
- Provides 12v power to the DC power system protection circuitry
Which circuits, normally supplied by the aircraft’s DC power system, are switched to the standby battery in the event of a DC power failure?
- Emergency exits
- Cabin notices
- Cabin lighting
- Standby artificial horizon
What two methods are used to vent the gasses from a battery?
Venturi action or cabin pressurisation systems
Why should the test function of standby batteries not be repeated at intervals of less than 3 minutes?
May cause the battery temperature to rise and there is the possibility of causing thermal runaway
Why is a ‘cooling-off period’, of approximately 10 to 25 seconds, provided for an on-board battery charging unit, where an overvoltage exists, while no such period is provided for undervoltage conditions?
Overvoltage conditions tend to cause an increase in current, which generally results in an increase in temperature
Undervoltage conditions don’t usually cause excessive current, so no overtemperature conditions exist
In a battery protection circuit, what is the ideal method by which to isolate the battery?
Relays on both terminals of the battery
Why does a battery charger not start unless the voltage sensed at the output terminals of the battery is above approximately 4v DC?
A battery at such a low charge will almost certainly have resulted in damage to the battery
If an attempt is made to charge it, a large current will flow into the battery and there may be a dangerous build-up of temperature or gases
Why is there a difference between a cut-off and cut-on temperature of the battery at which the battery charger will switch on and switch off?
If they were the same temperature, the battery charger will cycle on and off at a fast rate
What is the test provision sequence for a standby battery?
Pressing the charge test pushbuttons causes:
0.5 seconds controlled discharge through the current flow circuit. After this discharge, a measurement circuit checks that the battery voltage remains above 70% of the rated value and test OK light illuminates if successful
Simultaneously, overheat condition is simulated, lighting the fail lights
What is the power supply to the battery charging circuit?
115/200 Volts AC 3 phase
What is the charging current of a battery charging circuit limited to?
Approximately 65A
What two precautions should be taken with regards to aircraft battery switch positions?
- Set the BATT/GND PWR switch to ON unless the aircraft battery or a ground power unit is connected
- Set the NORM/EMERG switch to EMERG unless the aircraft power system is energised, if not, the standby battery will be discharged
Why are alkaline batteries more susceptible to thermal runaway?
Can handle high charge and discharge currents
What is thermal runaway?
At higher than normal temperatures, the heat loss of the battery through radiation and conduction is lower than the heat generated
As a result, internal resistance is lowered which increases current, this increases temperature further and the cycle continues to destruction
What factors can cause overheating in a battery?
- Incorrect voltage regulation
- High load current (multiple engine starts)
- Loose links between cells
- Low electrolyte
- Leakage currents between cells and container
- Cell unbalance
What are the advantages of alkaline over lead acid batteries?
- Can handle higher charge and discharge currents
- Can be left in any state of charge with no detrimental effects
- Normally more robust
- Terminal voltage between charged and discharged changes very little
- Alkaline cell is lighter than lead acid cell (however 24v lead acid is actually lighter than 24v alkaline)
- Normally have a longer life
How are batteries charged in a servicing bay, and how are they charged on an aircraft?
Servicing bay - Constant current method
Aircraft - lead acid charged by constant voltage method, alkaline charged by high initial current then pulse charged to allow for temperature stabilisation before switching to constant voltage
What is the purpose of the suppressor in a general DC generator?
Reduces radio interference, which may be caused by sparking between the brushes and commutator
What is the purpose of the trimmer resistor in a carbon pile regulator?
Adjusted by the engineer during a ground run, to ensure that, at the correct generator output voltage, the current in the voltage coil will produce the correct amount of magnetic force to balance the leaf spring
What is the principle of operation of the carbon pile voltage regulator?
The resistance of a carbon pile is balanced by a voltage coil acting against a leaf spring, which adjusts the excitation voltage in a coil to the generator
In what ways are solid state or transistorised voltage regulator superior to older types of regulators?
- Cost
- Reliability
- Weight
- Less radio interference
If the voltage coil in a carbon pile voltage regulator became open circuit, what would happen to the generator’s output voltage?
The leaf spring would have nothing acting against it, so resistance in the carbon pile decreases, allowing increased current in the excitation field and increased voltage
In an aircraft with fourteen 5A, seven 15A and two 30A fuses, how many fuses should the crew carry as spares?
9
as the rule states ‘10% or 3, whichever is greater’
Resistive loads can be supplied by which what types of AC generating systems?
Frequency wild
What conditions are necessary in the run-up of a generator?
- Allowed to run-up in an off-load situation
- At a specified voltage output, usually slightly higher than the bus bar, before being brought online
In a direct switching (differential cut-out) generator cut-out arrangement, what initially causes the differential cut-out contacts to close?
Thinner ‘differential’ coil
In a direct switching (differential cut-out) generator cut-out arrangement, what is the purpose of the heavy-duty current series coil?
When generator is ‘on-line’ and producing enough current for forward flow, magnetic effects of the coil assist the differential coil
When generator is ‘on-line’ but not producing enough so as to resist reverse flow, reverse current flow through coil creates magnetic field which opposes that of the shunt coil, and so forces the cut-out contacts open, disconnecting the generator from the busbar
What are the components of a basic single engined generator system?
- Generator
- Voltage regulator
- Differential cut-out
- Battery
What is the distinction between a differential relay and an RCCB?
Differential relay will operate on reverse currents of 20-30 amps
RCCBs will operate on reverse currents of approximately 500 amps and at very high speed
What might be the cause of a DC generator having a defect of sparking at all brushes?
- Dirty commutator
- Excessive load
- Incorrect brush position