Numerical Study on the Heating Effect of a Spring-Loaded Actuator—Part II: Optimization Design of Heater Parameters

Abstract

Unfavorable temperatures and humidity will cause the failure of spring actuators. In order to ensure the safe operation of the actuator, it is necessary to optimize the design of the built-in heater system of the actuator itself. In this study, an experimental design and a response surface model were used to fit the empirical formulas for the minimum temperature, maximum humidity, and maximum temperature on the heater surface. On this basis, a genetic algorithm was used to establish the optimal size of the heater in the chamber of the spring actuator. The study results show that the air inside the actuator shows a trend of a decrease in temperature and an increase in relative humidity from top to bottom. The empirical equation obtained by fitting the second-order response surface model has high accuracy, and the maximum prediction errors for the minimum temperature, maximum relative humidity, and maximum temperature of the heater surface of the spring actuator are −0.5%, 11.7%, and 4.7%, respectively. When the environmental temperature reduces from 313 K to 233 K, the optimal heating power of the heater increases from 10 W to 490 W, the optimal relative length increases from 3.57 to 6, and the optimal relative width increases from 1 to 5.3. Therefore, the study can act as a reference for the temperature and humidity control system of future actuators.