ORCHESTRA Project

This project has received funding from Horizon 2020 under the European Union’s Horizon 2020
research and innovation programme under grant agreement number 101006771.
ORCHESTRA Project
ORCHESTRA Project
 High-Level Project Objectives

ORCHESTRA will target the challenges of airborne Electrical Power Systems (EPS) for current and
next generation aircraft, supporting both incremental changes and addressing the needs of disruptive
future aircraft configurations.

An innovative approach involving modular scalable ‘Technical Building Blocks’ (TBBs) that
incorporate emerging technologies and breakthrough design ideas will be taken.

Technical aspects will include:

• electrical architectures
• machines power management and control
• harness solutions
• thermal management
• electric energy storage
• experimental and virtual testing
• systems integration

The key quantitative objectives of ORCHESTRA will include overall EPS weight reduction by 25%
and improvement in EPS efficiency by 10% compared to the current state-of-the-art.
ORCHESTRA Technological Building Blocks (TBBs) Concept
 WP2 Requirements and Specifications

Much More Electric Aircraft (M2EA)

Analysis of Top-Level Aircraft Development of

Requirements (TLAR) and aircraft requirements and
configuration for the reference Regional specifications for the
M2EA and development of requirements Technological Building
related to certification, safety, integration Blocks (TBBs) for M2EA
& type of loads

Development of the
Validation and Verification
Trade-off studies of
(V&V) Plan for the key Project
emerging technologies
findings and approaches for
suitable for M2EA TBBs
virtual and physical Electrical
Power System integration.
 WP3 Innovative Much More Electric Aircraft Electric Power Systems

Primary Energy
Storage System
ORCHESTRA will introduce
breakthrough radical changes Modular and scalable
Starters/Boosters/
to architecture solutions to Generators
electrical machines
optimise their weight and make and power electronic
them operate at ultimate energy converters
efficiency, safely and reliably
under all flight scenarios and
KVDC
operational modes Buses

High voltage bus

Propulsive loads transmission to
Global minimise cable
Smart supervisor Supervisor
losses
controller using
elements of artificial
intelligence

Primary
Power
Flexible,
Distribution reconfigurable
SSPC Matrix
De-centralised power distribution
secondary power solution for extra
distribution units HVDC redundancy
Buses
to reduce cable
weight
Local ES
(s-cap)
SPDU SPDU SPDU SPDU SPDU

SPDU: Secondary Power Distribution Unit

 WP4 Electrical Power Distribution Technologies

High frequency harnesses shielding Power Line Communication in Much

characterization & design (TBB4) More Electric Aircraft (M2EA) Electrical
Power Systems (EPS) (TBB5)
Development of a specific
communication protocols
TBBs* for a lighter & more reliable For sensor data transmission
Electrical Power System over low power lines (Power
TBB -> Technological Building Block Line Communication)
Development of
innovative methodology
for the harnesses shielding
characterization & design

Heat dissipation in electrical wires (TBB8) Faults Detection and Management

Development of faults
diagnostics methods and
faults management strategy for
the M2EA EPS
adapted to the operation
Development of new polymers under smart energy
with improved thermal conductivity management
for power cables
 WP5 Optimised Electric Machines

Study of advanced technologies that will enable the design,

development and manufacture of high power generators and motors

Develop multi-physics
simulation models to verify
and validate proposed
concepts and control
techniques Define electrical
interfaces between
the generator and the
motor to the
convertors
Design, test and
deliver prototypes for
advanced generators
and motors for Much
More Electric Aircraft
(M2EA)
 WP6 Onboard Power Conversion

Technical Building
Blocks TBBs
concept depends on
using small units of
power converters

Provides modular and

scalable structure, can
be integrated for any
power, voltage and
current level by
The best candidates Analysis and Development and
connecting the power
of the converter block evaluation employment of
converter blocks in
has been determined of emerging simulation models and
series and parallel
according to extensive technologies for advanced software tools
studies power electronic to evaluate the expected
switches such as improvements in power
Detailed design, manufacture, testing and delivery of WBG, SiC MOSF density and efficiency
modular innovative converters ET.
 WP7 Advanced Energy Storage

Much More Electric Aircraft (M2EA) Battery Concept: From Cell to

System
Upcoming, energy dense
battery cell technologies
Technology projection
for M2EA
study on future all solid-
state battery technologies to
evaluate its performance
targeting
M2EA applications

Conceptualisation of
the M2EA battery
using numerical
simulation supported
Design of: Gravimetric performance of
with data from lab different battery cell technologies
trials of all solid-state • Battery (adapted from BATTERY 2030+ Roadmap, March 2020) Pipistrel Velis Electro –
first type-certified battery-

pouch cells Management electric aircraft

System – Highest
reliability with
minimum number
of sensors All solid-state
battery
• Scalable DC/DC Lab trials,
Converters upscaling from
coin cell to
Modular power pouch cell
Virtual and HIL evaluation of the M2EA Energy converter
Storage
 WP8 Thermal Management Demonstration

Aircraft geometry
derivation to
meet requirements

© Fraunhofer IBP

Assure geometrical
integration of the M2EA
ORCHESTRA technological bricks © CIRA

Technological Building Blocks

of Much More Electric Aircraft
(M2EA)
© Fraunhofer IBP

Indoor environmental model to predict

Thermal Management Strategies
Failure modes (e.g. battery leakage)

Validation on
Thermal Test Bench
© Fraunhofer IBP
 WP9 Smart Supervision Control
Smart Supervisory System (SSS) and its Role for Much More
Electric Aircraft (M2EA) Concept
Electrical Load Management
(ELM) based on complete
switch-off of non-essential
loads (e.g. galley, IFE, cabin
lights). Disconnection order is
controlled by the pilot on smaller
aircraft; automatic on larger
aircraft
Electrical Energy Management (E-EM)
based on real-time management of
power converters. A Global Supervisor is
introduced as main equipment able to
send and receive specific messages on a
communication network, to implement E-
EM. In addition, several Local
Supervisors may interact with it to better
coordinate E-EM actions
 WP10 Validation and Integrative Testing
Modelling and
Virtual Integration Testing
• Creation of the validated Building
Blocks (considering interfaces,
simulation time, expected results
• Generation of various Electrical
Power System (EPS)
architectures by connecting
together all the Building Blocks.
Hardware-in-the-Loop
Testing
Creation of Hardware-in-the-
Loop to perform the pre-
integration tests on the single
real Building Block component
first and then their interactions.
Integrated
Experimental Tests
The tests on the test rigs are the
ultimate verification in the
Validation & Verification process. In
particular, they will prove the
overall Much More Electric Aircraft
(M2EA) EPS technologies through
the following main demonstration
areas: Equipment Integration tests,
Functional tests, System tests
(including reconfigurations and
failure cases), & Integrated Energy
Management tests.