Description: Hybrid-Electric distributed propulsion (HEDP) is becoming widely accepted and new tools will be required for future development with validation and demonstrations during ground and eventually flight testing. To monitor the overall HEDP system health in real time, a virtual requirement to flight qualify any architecture hardware components, reliability centered maintenance (RCM) applied to prognostics and health management (PHM) will yield significant improvement in HEDP system reliability, availability, safety and cost. This work will identify the tools and create a generic methodology for the PHM of a HEDP system based on RCM and failure mode data of likely HEDP architecture components. The proposed work will notionally design a PHM system into a HEDP system architecture, with feedback systems from each component within the stated architecture, as well as potential mitigation strategies for component failure modes. Specific attention will be applied to understanding of the reliability, availability, and safety for the HEDP components. Heating, arching, unexpected voltage drop, and other potential electronic pitfalls will be identified and mitigated. ESAero will leverage their component databases, experience with HEDP component architectures, aircraft design, and vendor relationships while General Atomics (GA) will provide expertise in PHM with their HealthMap software.

Benefits: The potential NASA commercial applications for this proposed SBIR effort will be twofold: during the conceptual design phase for HEDP architectures, a PHM system will provide a method for determining the health and functionality of these new electronic systems as they are integrated into the HEDP architecture, and eventually, the conceptual design process, directly benefitting NASA's work in HEDP and anticipated future testing activities, whether ground or flight. These methodologies will provide a valuable tool during initial design as well as provide a significant boost for further HEDP aircraft design development. Another area which could benefit NASA is to back away from HEDP specific PHM and re-configure the methodology and models for targeted PHM on any given subsystem related to HEDP, as a single component could be considered another "subsystem" in the view of the aircraft PHM. This could even include land-based monitoring devices.

The potential non-NASA commercial applications for this proposed SBIR effort will be similar to the NASA commercial applications, specifically during conceptual design for HEDP system architectures. This tool would provide valuable performance, health, and reliability information during top-level design as well as provide a significant boost for further aircraft design development. The ESAero/GA team proposing this work is in a unique position because the subcontractor, General Atomics, is the best path for immediate commercialization as a manufacturer of RPAs, RPA payloads, and propulsion systems for the Air Force. The HEDP PHM methodologies and models to be developed during this work are directly applicable to multiple AFRL, NASA and IARPA programs, along with some private industry work with particularly Lockheed Martin and Boeing. The first HEDP aircraft targeted could include GA's offerings, or something similar in performance and size for flight testing and demonstration activities.