Development of a Sizing and Analysis Tool for Electrohydrostatic and Electromechanical Actuators for the More Electric Aircraft

Abstract

This work documents the development of a MATLAB/Simulink based methodology for the sizing, simulation, analysis, and optimization of electric actuators for the primary and secondary control surfaces of a More Electric Aircraft. For a given aircraft and control surface configuration, the control surface flight loads are first evaluated taking into account their aerodynamic characteristics and the critical flight conditions relevant to each. With this information, the performance of a given actuator design can be analyzed via a simulation of the actuator and thermal dynamics. Conversely, for a given objective function and constraint set, the actuator design can be optimized through the solution of a constrained optimization problem. This work focuses on the development of the flight load estimation capability, the modeling and simulation environment, and the weight estimation method, while a separate work describes the actuator optimization problem and a study of actuator-to-surface allocation. While applicable to a wide variety of aircraft, the current work analyzes electrohydrostatic and electromechanical actuators using the Boeing 737-800 aircraft as a test case.

A review of electromechanical actuators for More/All Electric aircraft systems

“…There are two major means for EMA system modelling. One is the typical mathematical modelling method adopted by most authors, [112][113][114][115] which is based on the system transfer function or state-space description. Nevertheless, this method allows for a less accurate description of the EMA system complexity, which limits multidisciplinary modelling.…”

“…Arriola and Thielecke 114 created a detailed nonlinear model of two parallel EMAs to enable the design of safety control functions and to reduce the reflected inertial load peaks using an active load control strategy. Chakraborty et al 115 developed a simulation model to estimate the aerodynamic loads of primary flight control surfaces and evaluate the weight of each component.…”

State‐of‐the‐art and some considerations on thermal load analysis and thermal management for hydraulic system in MEA

“…Aircraft hydraulic system usually consists of EDP and EMDP, servo valve (or direction valve), accumulator, tank, pipe, heat exchanger and hydraulic cylinder and motor etc. Most civil and military aircrafts in service today adopt the centralised hydraulic system [3]. Hydraulic power is extracted from the airframe‐mounted accessories drive (AMAD) EDP and EMDP.…”

“…Owing to its advantages such as fast response, steady transmission, and high power‐to‐weight ratio, aircraft hydraulic system (AHS) has been widely utilised as the flight control actuation for a long time. Its pumping source is engine‐driven axial piston pump (primary) and electric‐motor‐driven axial piston pump (stand by) [3]. With the increasing demand of aircraft performance, the power, pressure and electrification in hydraulic system have been increased accordingly, meanwhile it also brings about the power loss and results in overheat of hydraulic oil and components, and thus severely affects flight safety and reliability [4].…”

Preliminary design and multi-objective optimization of electro-hydrostatic actuator

“…7 A simulation-based preliminary design method involving preliminary sizing of an electromechanical actuator for an aircraft primary flight control surface (aileron) is proposed in Fraj et al 8 An improved integrated methodology for the preliminary design of electromechanical actuators in a redundant electromechanical nose gear steering system is given in Liscoue¨t et al 9 A model-based methodology for the optimal preliminary design of electro-mechanical actuators is developed in Budinger et al, 10,11 which indicates the usefulness of these estimation models. A methodology for the sizing, simulation, analysis, and optimization of electric actuators for the primary and second flight control surfaces of MEA is proposed in Chakraborty et al, 12,13 in which the estimates of control surface flight loads and actuator's weight, framing, and solving the optimization problem and actuator-to-surface allocation are presented.…”