Energy Flow Modeling for Simulating Missions of Solar Electric High-Altitude Aircraft

Abstract

Solar-electric aircraft capable of continuous flight in the stratosphere are a promising solution for earth observation tasks or for providing high-speed data communications in remote areas. The development of such aircraft is a challenging task since energy consumption must be as low as possible. During the design process, it is important to validate the current configuration against the required mission profile. For this purpose, a comprehensive mission simulation environment for solar-electric high-altitude aircraft was developed, which is extensively used in the German Aerospace Center’s (DLR) High Altitude Platform (HAP) project. This publication gives a brief introduction to the HAP project, followed by a description of the simulation environment. The focus is on the modeling and simulation of the energy flow. First, the general structure of the electrical network and the solution algorithm are resented, followed by a detailed explanation of the modeling of the photovoltaic system, batteries, and propulsion system. The publication concludes with the presentation of meaningful simulation results.