Fault-tolerant design of motor-drives for high reliability applications

The present paper describes how fault-tolerance concepts are implemented in electrical drives for high reliability applications, such as in the More Electric Aircraft. The impact on the motor-drive architecture and design is discussed, considering the different levels concerned: electrical machine, power converter and control. The case of study refers to the development of an electrical actuator for the flap panels of medium-size aircrafts. Two different solutions are presented: switched reluctance and brushless DC motor drives. The reliability issues and the requirements for the degraded operating modes of the flap application are illustrated. Experimental results are given showing the performance of both the motor-drive solutions in the healthy and faulty operation modes.