Fabrication of MVDC multilayer insulation systems as flat samples for wide-body all-electric aircraft

To fulfill the net zero emission goal, transportation sector, as the largest source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the United States, must be decarbonized. Electrification is regarded as one of the most promising approaches to decarbonizing transportation. Due to its annual growth, the aviation industry has also been targeted to be decarbonized. Fully electrification of aviation or all-electric aircraft (AEA) requires high power density and low system mass electric power systems (EPS), and to this end, moving towards MVDC is preferred. In our previous work, numerous Multilayer Multifunctional Electrical Insulation (MMEI) systems have been designed. However, the dielectric strength and time-to-failure of the designed MMEI systems can only be determined by experimental tests. In this paper, the process of fabricating flat samples of down-selected MMEI designs by a compressionmolding process is discussed in detail.

I. Introduction

In the United States, transportation sector generated the largest share of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, 29%, in 2019. Transportation electrification is regarded as the most promising solution in achieving decarbonization of transportation and the net zero emission goal. Although the aviation industry accounted for 8% of transportation sector GHG emissions in 2019 in the United States, due to its annual 5% increase in air travel, decarbonizing the aviation industry is of great importance [1], [2].