Design Considerations in Actuators for Aerospace Applications

In this paper, a comparative optimal design of actuators for aerospace applications based on induction-machine (IM) and permanent-magnet machine (PMM) technologies is undertaken by means of a combined electromagnetic and thermal evaluation. Initially, 3-D time-stepping finite-element analysis is employed for the determination of the actuators´ basic dimensional and operating characteristics. As the actuator thermal constraints constitute a key feature of the respective systems, the proposed configurations are compared on the basis of equal thermal evacuation. Both configurations considered are in a next step optimized regarding the mean torque and torque ripple through the application of a specific optimization procedure employing Taguchi´s methodology in conjunction with an extended Rosenbrock´s method accounting also for the machine operation cycle. Resulting IM and PMM optimal configurations have been validated through manufactured prototypes, illustrating the effectiveness of the proposed optimization algorithm presenting, however, complementary advantages for aerospace applications.