Phase-Change-Materials (PCM) Energy Source for Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAV)

摘要

While there are many different challenges in the development of micrornaerial vehicles (MAV), one of the severe limiting factors in terms of weightrnis the energy storage/power system. Most of the MAVs developed to daternare based on electrochemical batteries coupled with an electric motor. In arnprevious study, several potential alternative energy storage/power systemsrnwere examined, evaluated for their specific energy and specific power, andrncompared to electrical batteries and hydrocarbon fuel storage.rnAdditionally, the power and energy requirements of fixed wing MAV andrnrotary wing MAV were calculated, for comparison with the differentrnalternatives. In the present study a novel PCM open cycle storage/powerrnsystem for MAV applications is proposed, based on those requirements. Itrnis an open cycle that uses the ambient temperature as its hot reservoir.rnPromising initial results, in terms of specific power (45-70W/kg), specificrnenergy (24-45W-hr/kg) and open-cycle thermodynamic efficiency (22-rn54%), are presented.