Analysis of Partial Discharge Characteristics of MVDC Power Cables Optimally Designed for All-Electric Wide Body Aircraft Under Varying Pressure During Takeoff and Descent

Introducing all-electric aircraft (AEA) is a viable option to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the aviation sector. The wide-body AEA's electric power system needs higher voltage levels (a few kVs) than the voltage levels of existing aircraft cables. Consequently, the aircraft cable insulation needs to withstand higher voltage, maintaining low mass since the EPS contributes about 30% of the total mass of aircraft. Aircraft cables face several challenges: arcing, partial discharge (PD), and electromagnetic interference due to low-pressure environments at high altitudes. Several multilayer insulation designs for aircraft cables were proposed to overcome these challenges, and the optimized fabrication process of these cables was presented in our previous works. This paper analyzes the PD characteristics of fabricated flat insulation samples for the cables under different air pressures as the aircraft operates from 1 atm at the time of takeoff to 18.8 kPa at the typical cruising altitude (12.2 km).