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Wide bandgap (WBG) and ultra-wide bandgap (UWBG)-based inverters are increasingly being adopted in More Electric Aircraft (MEA) and All Electric Aircraft (AEA) due to their ability to operate at higher switching frequencies with improved efficiency and power density. However, these advantages come with drawbacks, including increased electrical stress and exacerbation of AC losses, such as the skin effect and proximity effect. Litz wire, known for its effectiveness in mitigating these losses, is becoming a preferred conductor in highvoltage, high-frequency aerospace applications. This study investigates the breakdown voltage behavior of Litz wire insulation under square wave voltage stress across different frequencies. Twisted-pair Litz wire specimens were tested using a state-of-the-art high-voltage pulse generator with fixed rise times to emulate inverter-fed conditions. The resulting breakdown voltages were statistically analyzed using the Weibull distribution to evaluate insulation strength and failure predictability. The findings offer new insights into the insulation characteristics of Litz wire under realistic high-frequency converter stress and support the development of converter-resistant insulation systems for next-generation aerospace electrical power systems (EPS).more » « lessFree, publicly-accessible full text available September 14, 2026
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Designing power cables that provide high power and low system mass is one of the major goals in achieving the future all-electric wide-body aircraft. Radiative and convective heat transfers from a cable's surface to the surrounding air determine how much current is permitted to flow through it. At a cruising altitude of 12.2 km (18.8 kPa) for wide-body aircraft, the limited heat transfer by convection poses thermal issues for the design of aircraft cables. These thermal challenges are exacerbated for bipolar electric power systems (EPS), which are usually made up of two power lines next to each other. The cable's surface area affects both convective and radiative heat transfers. Changing the shape of the cable is one technique to improve heat transfers and compensate for the reduced convective heat transfer caused by low air pressure. In comparison to cylindrical and cuboid cables, the rectangular geometry design gives a bigger contact area with the surrounding atmosphere for the same cross-section area, hence it is anticipated that the heat transfer would rise and as a result, the cable's maximum power-carrying capability will be higher. The purpose of this paper is to design ±5 kV bipolar MVDC power cables with rectangular geometry to raise the maximum current carrying capacity of the cable and analyze its performance with bipolar cylindrical and cuboid geometries.more » « less
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