Abstract
The more electric aircraft (MEA) initiative aims to improve weight, fuel consumption and maintenance costs of the aircraft, by increasing the use of electric power in actuation systems. Considering this scenario, electromechanical actuators (EMAs) for flight control (FC) systems represent a key technology in future aircraft. The paper presents a linear geared EMA for secondary FC systems, where the safety and availability requirements are fulfilled by duplicating the electric drive acting on the EMA drive-train (i.e. two power converters feeding as many electrical machines coupled to the same mechanical system). The design of the permanent magnet synchronous machine (PMSM) integrated into the EMA is addressed. Preliminary results on the PMSM prototype are also provided and compared to the finite element (FE) outcomes obtained at the design stage. The EMA performance at system-level is evaluated in Dymola environment, analyzing three operating modes, such as active-active, active-standby and active-shorted. Finally, some thermal considerations regarding the active-shorted configuration are outlined.
Highlights
In recent years, demanding regulations on fuel emissions and the need of decreasing both operating and maintenance costs have encouraged the aircraft industry to move from conventional hydraulic to electrical actuation systems [1-3]
The permanent magnet synchronous machine (PMSM) performance has been evaluated via finite element (FE) analysis and further compared against the experimental back-EMF waveforms and torque-current characteristic
The main outcome of the comparison is the influence of the permeable rotor endcaps, which leads to 6% and 3.7% reduction on the induced back-EMF and on the developed torque, respectively
Summary
In recent years, demanding regulations on fuel emissions and the need of decreasing both operating and maintenance costs have encouraged the aircraft industry to move from conventional hydraulic to electrical actuation systems [1-3]. Both EHAs and EMAs are currently employed on large commercial aircraft. The risk of failures (e.g. jamming) and the lack of accumulated reliability experience relegate EMAs to be currently implemented on secondary FCs, such as flaps, spoilers and slats [9]. These FC surfaces are considered less safety-critical, due to the inherent surface redundancy of the aircraft wing, which is equipped with multiple FC surfaces performing the same aerodynamic task [12]. Due to the high current flowing through windings during the active-shorted configuration, the PMSM hot-spot temperature has been predicted by using a lumped parameter thermal network (LPTN) built according to [17]
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