Protection devices for aircraft electrical power distribution systems: a survey

The development of all electric aircraft has provided new opportunities in the area of electronic devices and power electronics. One of the most interesting fields is related to the protection devices area and the loads management by means of the Solid State Power Controllers (SSPC). This is mainly due to the noticeable increase of these devices in the architectures of electrical power distribution system used in the new airplanes such as A380 and B787. This paper presents a survey of conventional and future trends of protections in on-board platforms. In addition, a virtual test bench is developed in order to analyze the potential problems that could appear by using SSPC technology in the new onboard platforms.