Notes on 'The electric control of large aeroplanes'

Thompson, Kevin G.

doi:10.1109/62.9377

Cited by 25 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…4 More recent efforts have been undertaken in the United States, 5 involving the C-141 Starlifter, 6 NASA's F-18 Systems Research Aircraft, 7,8 the AFTI F-16, 9 and most recently the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. 10 On the civil aviation side, a notable MEA is the Airbus A380, where electric actuators are used for certain control surfaces.…”

Section: Overview Of Flight Control Actuation Systems: Hydraulic Versmentioning

confidence: 99%

A methodology for vehicle and mission level comparison of More Electric Aircraft subsystem solutions: Application to the flight control actuation system

Chakraborty

Mavris

Emeneth³

et al. 2014

Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part G:

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As part of the More Electric Initiative, there is a significant interest in designing energy-optimized More Electric Aircraft, where electric power meets all non-propulsive power requirements. To achieve this goal, the aircraft subsystems must be analyzed much earlier than in the traditional design process. This means that the designer must be able to compare competing subsystem solutions with only limited knowledge regarding aircraft geometry and other design characteristics. The methodology presented in this work allows such tradeoffs to be performed and is driven by subsystem requirements definition, component modeling and simulation, identification of critical or constraining flight conditions, and evaluation of competing architectures at the vehicle and mission level. The methodology is applied to the flight control actuation system, where electric control surface actuators are likely to replace conventional centralized hydraulics in future More Electric Aircraft. While the potential benefits of electric actuation are generally accepted, there is considerable debate regarding the most suitable electric actuator -electrohydrostatic or electromechanical. These two actuator types form the basis of the competing solutions analyzed in this work, which focuses on a small narrowbody aircraft such as the Boeing 737-800. The competing architectures are compared at both the vehicle and mission levels, using as metrics subsystem weight and mission fuel burn, respectively. As shown in this work, the use of this methodology aids the decision-making process by allowing the designer to rapidly evaluate the significance of any performance advantage between the competing solutions.

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Section: Overview Of Flight Control Actuation Systems: Hydraulic Versmentioning

confidence: 99%

A methodology for vehicle and mission level comparison of More Electric Aircraft subsystem solutions: Application to the flight control actuation system

Chakraborty

Mavris

Emeneth³

et al. 2014

Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part G:

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“…Replacing the hydraulic system with electric actuators has been an active field of research with the potential for weight savings. [15][16][17][18] This potential for significant weight savings (over a triple redundant hydraulic system), the quickly improving power-to-weight ratio of electric actuator technologies, and Boeing's projected use of the technology are sufficient reasons to expect their use in HWB vehicles. 9,19 The actuation subsystem power requirements for electric actuators are known to be driven primarily by high hinge moments, rather than deflection rates.…”

Section: A Actuation Subsystem Power For Distinguishing Between Trimmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Equation 15 was then used to estimate the center of gravity location. For the inertia estimate, aircraft components were similarly modeled as point masses and flat plates and integrated using Equation 16. Figure 2 shows the CG and I yy under various loading conditions.…”

Section: Mass Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Power Efficient Trim Solutions for the Hybrid Wing Body in Approach Conditions

Garmendia

Mavris

2015

AIAA Atmospheric Flight Mechanics Conference

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The presence of control redundancy in configurations such as the Hybrid Wing Body can result in non-unique trim trim solutions. This can be taken advantage of to minimize a secondary metric in addition to balancing the forces and moments acting on the vehicle. In a previous study, drag was investigated as a secondary metric and was found to work well for several flight conditions. For the approach flight condition, however, the minimum drag solution was found to require a thrust below an assumed approach idle throttle. A different metric must be used in the presence of an active throttle constraint during optimization. Actuation power requirements are known to be a subject of much uncertainty and high risk for the Hybrid Wing Body configuration. Trim solutions that help keep actuation power requirements low are therefore worth investigating. A metric based on control surface hinge moments was developed and used for trim optimization analyses. Under the assumption of electrical actuation systems, it can be used as a stand-in for steady state power in early design phases. The metric was successfully used to identify trim solutions that will likely have low steady state power requirements. The optimizer was able to achieve low power trim solutions by allowing several elevons to float to their neutral hinge moment positions, while using a single pair of elevons to trim the remaining pitching moments. The sensitivity of the minimum power trim solution to deflection limits and the use of trim-only devices was also investigated.

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“…This is an electrical subsystem that provides locally hydraulic actuation capability. However, a drawback linked to the use of these actuators is their initial and maintenance cost, which is higher than for totally electromechanical actuators [3].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the field of actuators, alternative architectures for primary and secondary flight control, as well as new landing gears, braking, nacelle actuation, and horizontal stabilizer architectures are being examined. A large set of actuators has been studied, among which Electro-Hydrostatic Actuators (EHA) and Electro-Mechanical Actuators (EMA) [1][2][3][4]. In the EHA solution, a distributed hydraulic system is used whereas in the EMA solution the hydraulics is replaced by an electrical machine, a gearbox, and/or a screw mechanism.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reliable electro-mechanical actuators in aircraft

García¹,

Cusidó²,

Rosero³

et al. 2008

IEEE Aerosp. Electron. Syst. Mag.

118

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There is a general trend in the aerospace industry toward increasing the use of electrically-powered equipment. This trend is usually referred to as "Power-by-Wire" in the "More Electric Aircraft" (MEA) concept and it leads, among others, to the substitution of hydraulic actuators by Electro-Mechanical Actuators (EMA). Its benefits are a decrease in maintenance effort and weight, and an increase in efficiency. However, jamming case obstacles stop the massive use of EMAs in flight-control actuators.The aim herein is to introduce the safety needs of electro-mechanical actuators in aircraft applications, and Its major goal is to present the suitability and reliability of such actuator systems, including electric motors and power converters.

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Notes on 'The electric control of large aeroplanes'

Cited by 25 publications

References 2 publications

A methodology for vehicle and mission level comparison of More Electric Aircraft subsystem solutions: Application to the flight control actuation system

A methodology for vehicle and mission level comparison of More Electric Aircraft subsystem solutions: Application to the flight control actuation system

Power Efficient Trim Solutions for the Hybrid Wing Body in Approach Conditions

Reliable electro-mechanical actuators in aircraft

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