Modeling and analysis of an innovative waste heat recovery system for helicopters

The efficiency of helicopters is limited due to the high power losses of combustion engines, a fraction of which can be recovered and provided to the electrical bus by exploiting the heat found in the exhaust gases and through power electronics converters. The first system recovers energy through a thermoelectric generator, whereas the second through a permanent magnet generator rotated by a steam turbine. A third power converter, connected to a supercapacitor bank, compensates the peak currents demanded by the loads. Since extensive simulations have to be run in order to validate the feasibility of those systems, average models of the power converters are derived, and their accuracy is examined. Finally, based on those average models, the developed control strategy is examined.