Addressing Safety concerns in Hybrid Electric Aircrafts: In-Flight Icing Detection, Moisture Detection in Fuselage and Electrical Wiring and Interconnect System (EWIS)

Abstract

Moisture - in the form of water or ice – has adverse consequences on the performance of an aircraft including wing stall, tail stall, loss of thrust, engine flameout, and material damage arising from corrosion and electrical shortcuts. During flight, a large flux of supercooled water droplets on the surface of a hybrid electric aircraft per unit time could result into icing. A prototype to detect ice accretion on supercooled aircraft surface using acoustic emissions is developed. Moreover, during descend, a large portion of frost/ice melts rapidly due to rise in temperature. If not controlled, water may seep inside a hybrid electric aircraft body through gaps in joints. Furthermore, for the problem of water ingression in the wiring of hybrid aircrafts, titanium carbonitride-polyvinyl alcohol (TiCN-PVA) composite material is placed in direct water contact to work as grid health monitoring sensor. For the problem of water ingression inside structural parts (floor, bilge, etc.), an electrically conductive epoxy – carbon black composite is fabricated, characterized using SEM, and tested for DC conductivity under dry and wet conditions. Effect of different mixing intensities on morphology of carbon black in epoxy has also been explored. Through literature survey and trial and error, an optimized method at laboratory scale for preparation of carbon black-epoxy composite material has been presented.