Study of contactless power transmission for rotating sun generator used in spatial applications

Details

Supervisors

Bekemans, Marc

Faculty

Ecole polytechnique de Louvain

Degree label

Master [120] : ingénieur civil électricien, à finalité spécialisée

Abstract

Satellites launched into orbit generate the necessary power for their operation from the sunlight using solar panels. To ensure that the power generation is maximum, these solar panels rotate in order to have their surface always facing the sun. The power is then transferred from the solar panels to the satellite via a rotating system called Solar Array Drive System. Nowadays Solar Array Drive Systems use slip rings technology to transfer power from the rotating solar panels to the static satellite. However, slip rings technology suffers from limitations in the harsh spatial environement such as voltage limitation and wear. In this work, a complete satellite power system using a contactless rotating transformer for the power transfer is studied and simulated using LTSpice, in order to chose the best topology for all the parts of the studied system, namely the solar panel, the rotating transformer and the power electronic converter used to transfer power from the solar panel to the satellite without contact. At first, a state of the art on contactless power transfer is presented to help in choosing topologies for the elements making up the entire system. Then, the different parts of the system are modeled and the models are confirmed using LTSpice. Finally, the entire system is modeled and simulated, and three different power electronic converters are compared in order to chose the most suitable for this work.