Power Conversion Prognostic Controller Implementation for Aeronautical Motor Drives

This paper describes the development of predictive and prognostic techniques for aeronautical power converters, specifically motor drives, along with details of integration into the system controller. The paper reviews the dominant failure and wearout mechanism of electromagnetic actuator (EMA) systems along with power modules and converters, also additional mechanisms introduced by high-temperature effects. Models are presented that capture these deterioration mechanisms and that coupled with the physical information, predominantly temperature history, can be used to determine the state of health (or deterioration) of the system. Simple estimator techniques, and microcontroller based implementation, are described to predict internal temperatures from ambient temperature and instantaneous power dissipation measurements. Finally some details of the microcontroller (DSP) based Prognostic Controller are presented as applied to an actuator motor drive.