Considerations on the Development of an Electric Drive for a Secondary Flight Control Electromechanical Actuator

The more electric aircraft concept aims to improve the fuel consumption, the weight and both the maintenance and operating costs of the aircraft, by promoting the use of electric power in actuation systems. According to this scenario, electromechanical actuators for flight control systems represent an important technology in next generation aircraft. The paper presents a linear geared electromechanical actuator for secondary flight control systems, where the safety and availability requirements are fulfilled by replicating the electric drive acting on the drivetrain. Indeed, the architecture considered consists of two power converters feeding as many electrical machines coupled to the same mechanical system. The design of both the permanent magnet synchronous machine and the power converter are addressed. Preliminary results on the electric drive prototype are also provided and compared to the design requirements. Finally, the electromechanical actuator performance at system-level is evaluated in Dymola environment, analyzing different operating modes.