Thermal battery for aircraft emergency power

摘要

The authors undertook the development of a thermal battery systemto supply aircraft emergency power. The system was developed as analternative to the oxygen-methanol or hydrazine emergency systems. Twobatteries were developed: TB1 to provide power to an electrohydraulicpump and TB2 to provide power to aircraft electronics. For bothbatteries the LiAl/FeS₂ system was used, along with ternaryelectrolyte (LiCl-LiBr-LiFl). The reasons for utilizing thermalbatteries in this application are threefold: first, thermal batterieshave lower maintenance requirements than the hydrazine andoxygen-methanol systems; second, they are environmentally less hazardousthan the hydrazine and oxygen-methanol systems; and, third, they areable to provide the required power with a fast risetime at theenvironmental temperature extremes. The performance shows thefeasibility of very large, high energy density thermal batteries for newapplications as emergency power systems