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Power Management of Small Naval Vessels

     Status:
Current Research Project

Research Category:
Power Electronics

Research Center:
Microelectronics Research and Communications Institute

Sponsor(s)
Office of Naval Research (ONR)

Primary Researchers:
 Brian K. Johnson and Herbert L. Hess.

Graduate Student Research Assistants:
 Edward William, John Finley, James Klein and Leo Luckose.

Undergraduate Student Research Assistants:
 Jarred Coulter, Sunan Huang, James Randall and Justin Schlee.

Duration:
June 1, 2007 to May 31, 2010



The United States Navy is moving to all-electric ships and vehicles to improve future warfighting capability. An all-electric system provides an electric backbone that controls the generation, distribution and storage of energy and then provides power to the appropriate loads when required. Realizing the full potential of naval applications of an all-electric architecture presents significant technical and systems engineering challenges.

We are developing an all-electric architecture that can satisfy the performance parameters set by the officers and sailors of the United States Navy. The system must interface with and control components and subsystems from numerous vendors, and accept functional replacements from different vendors as the industrial base changes over the life of the ship. The system must be easily reconfigured to enhance survivability when damaged and to accept new components as new technologies emerge to enhance existing capabilities or provide new capabilities during the 30-year life of the ship.

The Naval Warfare Center Carderock Division Acoustic Research Detachment in Bayview, Idaho operates all-electric surface test craft (the Advanced Electric Ship Demonstrator (AESD)) and undersea test craft (Large Scale Vehicle (LSV)). These craft offer research opportunities for the study and analyses of the existing power management systems and the design of an improved overall system architecture and controls as well as improved components. The former has the additional advantage of being an exact ¼-scale prototype of the Navy’s next generation of combat destroyer ship, the DDX.

At present, we hope to solve three problems: a rate increase for AESD propulsion battery charging, a rate increase for AEDS Uninterruptible Power Source (UPS) battery charging, and avoidance of a LSV Main Propulsion battery voltage sag during motor acceleration.