DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Umezu et al., US Pg. Pub. No. 2020/0083709 referred to hereinafter as Umezu.
As per claim 1, Umezu teaches an apparatus for providing energy in an aircraft, comprising: a DC bus to which at least one electrical load is intended to be connected (see at least Para abstract, summary, Para 70-72, 94, 97-98, fig. 2, 5); several electrical sources including: at least one electrical source referred to as low-pressure electrical source designed to draw power from a low-pressure of a turbomachine of the aircraft, in order to provide a current to the DC bus (see at least Para abstract, summary, Para 70-72, 94, 97-98, 125, 134, 171-172, fig. 2, 5), and at least one electrical source referred to as high-pressure electrical source designed to draw power from a high-pressure body of the turbomachine of the aircraft, in order to provide a current to the DC bus (see at least Para abstract, summary, Para 70-72, 94, 97-98, 171-172, fig. 2, 5); wherein the apparatus further comprises: a system for calculating a droop gain for each low-pressure electrical source and each high-pressure electrical source, on the basis of at least one operating characteristic of the turbomachine (see at least Para abstract, summary, Para 70-72, 94, 171-172, fig. 2, 5); and for each low-pressure electrical source and each high-pressure electrical source, a module for controlling the electrical source under consideration, designed to implement a droop regulation on the basis of the droop gain calculated for the electrical source under consideration (see at least Para abstract, summary, Para 70-72, 94, 97-98, 125, 134, 171-172, fig. 2, 5).
As per claim 2, Umezu teaches an apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the at least one operating characteristic of the turbomachine comprises at least one of: a fuel inlet flow rate and/or an air inlet flow rate into a combustion chamber of the turbomachine, a rotational speed of the low-pressure body, a rotational speed of the high-pressure body, an air inlet temperature and/or fuel inlet temperature and/or temperature of exhaust gases leaving the combustion chamber (see at least Para abstract, summary, Para 70-72, 94, 97-98, 125, 134, 171-172, fig. 2, 5).
As per claim 3, Umezu teaches an apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the system for calculating droop gains comprises: a controller of the turbomachine designed to define a ratio(S) between the power drawn from the high-pressure body by the high-pressure electrical source or sources and the power drawn from the low-pressure body by the low-pressure electrical source or sources, on the basis of the operating characteristic or characteristics of the turbomachine; and for each electrical source, a module for calculating, from the ratio, the droop gain of the electrical source under consideration, so that the ratio is complied with (see at least Para abstract, summary, Para 70-72, 94, 97-98, 125, 134, 171-172, fig. 2, 5).
As per claim 4, Umezu teaches an apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the controller is designed to provide data referred to as power data representative of a maximum low-pressure mechanical power that can be drawn from the low-pressure body and a maximum high-pressure mechanical power that can be drawn from the high-pressure body, and wherein each calculation module is designed to calculate the associated droop gain from the power data, so that the mechanical power drawn from the low-pressure body remains less than or equal to the maximum low-pressure mechanical power and the mechanical power drawn from the high-pressure body remains less than or equal to the maximum high-pressure mechanical power (see at least Para abstract, summary, Para 70-72, 94, 97-98, 125, 134, 171-172, fig. 2, 5).
As per claim 5, Umezu teaches an apparatus according to claim 4, wherein each calculation module is designed to calculate the associated droop gain as to maximise a sum of the currents which can respectively be provided by the electrical sources when the DC bus has a minimum bus voltage predefined by the droop regulation (see at least Para abstract, summary, Para 70-72, 94, 97-98).
As per claim 6, Umezu teaches an apparatus according to claim 1, comprising a plurality of high-pressure electrical sources and/or a plurality of low-pressure electrical sources, and wherein the calculation module of each high-pressure electrical source, respectively low-pressure electrical source, is designed to calculate the associated droop gain on the basis of a ratio between, on the one hand, the current provided by the high-pressure source, respectively low-pressure source, under consideration and, on the other hand, a sum of the currents respectively provided by all the high-pressure electrical sources, respectively low-pressure electrical sources (see at least Para abstract, summary, Para 70-72, 94, 97-98).
As per claim 7, Umezu teaches an apparatus according to claim 4, wherein each calculation module is designed to calculate the droop gain of the high-pressure electrical source as the product of the ratio and a constant and the droop gain of the low-pressure electrical source as the product of the one's complement of the ratio and the constant (see at least Para abstract, summary, Para 70-72, 94, 97-98).
As per claim 8, Umezu teaches an apparatus according to claim 1, wherein each control module is designed to: calculate a reference current) from the associated droop gain; calculate, from the power data, a maximum current that can be provided by the associated electrical source; and limit the reference current to the maximum current (see at least Para abstract, summary, Para 70-72, 94, 97-98).
As per claims 9-10, the limitations of 9-10 are similar to the limitations of claims 1-8, therefore they are rejected based on the same rationale.
Conclusion
Please refer to from 892 for cited references.
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/MUSSA A SHAAWAT/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3669