Impedance characteristics study of three-phase aircraft power wires

• Proposes an accurate measurement circuit for three phase aircraft power wire impedance analysis.
• The factors that may affect the impedance characteristic of wires has be thoroughly analyzed.
• The theoretical analyses are verified by both simulation and experimental studies.
• The conclusions can be used as reference for future design and implementation of aircraft cables.

This paper proposes an accurate measurement circuit for three phase aircraft power wires. The impedance characteristics of the three-phase aircraft power wires are related with the following three factors: frequency, wire laying forms, and the distance from the wire to aircraft skin. Three-phase power wires were modeled in this paper using Ansoft’s large finite element analysis software Maxwell. While the circuit to measure the positive sequence impedance and zero sequence impedance were separately built with Ansoft Simplorer. Then the voltage and current data of the three-phase wires under test can be obtained by co-simulating with Maxwell and Simplorer. Sequence impedance can be calculated according to symmetrical component method. The impacts of frequency changing, wire laying forms, as well as the distance between the wire and aircraft skin on phase sequence impedance were thoroughly analyzed. Finally, the simulation results were verified by experimental study. The results can be used as reference for future design and implementation of aircraft cables.