• Geier, Sebastian
• Petersen, Jan
• Wierach, Peter

Abstract

Increasing electrification in the aerospace sector as wellas the challenge of powering an entire aircraft electricallyplaces demands for the supply and storage of electrical energy.Energy devices must therefore be powerful and lightweight atthe same time for efficient performance of the overalltransportation system. One possibility to improve theperformance by reducing weight and volume is the combinationof structural and energy storing functions. Due to its lay-up, acomposite is particularly suitable for this challenge. Of course,batteries are one of the most important components, but when itcomes to being integrated in composite structures, theirpotential is reduced drastically because of their limited lifetime.In contrast, supercapacitors are a very promising technology.Their system features several advantages such as power densityand cycle stability. Due to their cycle stability, supercapacitorsare the ideal energy device for integration into areas that aredifficult to access, such as the lay-up of composite structures.This publication deals with the strategy of structure-compliantintegration of pouch supercapacitor cells. The aim is to operatedifferent peak power applications needed for space missions.The material combination has to be optimized to achieve thebest possible electromechanical performance. During thedevelopment, sets of structural supercapacitors with differentscales are built to check their specific capacity. Often thespecific properties drop by scaling up, but during thisdevelopment the specific capacity of 0.24F/cm2 was even keptfor the full-size demonstrator. Furthermore, this approachallows the reduction of volume and weight by 70-80%compared to a structure using commercial supercapacitors.

Topics

• impedance spectroscopy
• composite