Dr. Kaushik Rajashekara (“RAJA”) received his B.Eng., M.Eng, and Ph.D. degrees from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India in 1974, 1977, and 1983, respectively.  From 1977 to 1985, he worked as an Asst. Professor in Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.  In 1978 and 1984-85, he worked at Asea Brown Boveri, Switzerland, on power electronics systems.  In 1982, he was a visiting scientist at the Technical University of Dresden, Germany.  In July 1989, he joined Delphi Corporation, which was a division of General Motors.  In Delphi, he held various technical and managerial positions, and has been the Technical Fellow and Chief Scientist for Propulsion, Fuel Cell & Advanced Energy Systems.  In May 2006, he joined Rolls-Royce Corporation, Indianapolis as a Senior Technologist working on the More Electric Aircraft systems.

 

He has published more than 70 papers and has 20 patents in the area of power electronics related to Electric, Hybrid, and Fuel cell vehicles.

 

· He is a Fellow of IEEE

· Fellow of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) for his contributions to the advancement of propulsion systems for electric and hybrid vehicles

· He was inducted into the Delphi Innovation Hall of Fame in 1999.

·  In 2004, he was recognized as a short-term scholar under UNDP China program and China International Center for Economic and Technical Exchange.

· He was the Technical Program Chairman of the IEEE Workshop on Power Electronics in Transportation.  He was also the Chairman of the Power Electronics Devices and Components committee of the IEEE Industry Applications Society (1999-2000).

· He has been elected as Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Industry Applications Society

He was awarded 2006 IEEE Industry Applications Society Gerald Kliman Innovator Award for “contributions to the advancement of power conversion technologies through innovations and their applications to industry.”

Power Electronics for More Electric Engine and More Electric Aircraft

 

The aerospace industry is facing similar environmental challenges as the automotive industry in terms of improving emissions, fuel economy, and cost.  Another similarity is the move towards replacing mechanical systems by electrical systems, thus transitioning towards More Electric Aircraft (MEA) Architecture and More Electric Engine (MEE) concepts.  These systems are seen as ways of optimizing the total aircraft system by:

▪ Replacing individually optimized electric, hydraulic, and pneumatic systems with one globally optimized electrical system.  Electrically powered Environmental Control Systems (ECS) and electrical de-icing are a few of the examples.

Using advanced electric machine and power electronics technologies to enable proper integration of propulsion and secondary power into the aircraft system.

 

Power electronics and high power density electric machines are the enabling technologies for the successful development of MEAs.  Although power electronics and electric machines technologies are well advanced, further work is needed in several areas to meet the airplane requirements.  In addition, if significant energy storage becomes practical for these types of applications, they will bring significant design advantages for MEA systems. These could include replacing the APU systems with Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFCs) which is also very attractive from a noise and pollution point of view.

 

In this presentation, the reasons for industry interest in MEA and MEEs and the basic technologies that could be incorporated into these systems will be discussed. Some of the challenges and design considerations related to electrical and power electronic systems in a More Electric Aircraft are presented.  The technology progress of some of the Aerospace companies related to these systems will also be discussed. .

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