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Electro-Mechanical Actuators for Safety-Critical Aerospace Applications (2nd Edition)
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Electro-Mechanical Actuators for Safety-Critical Aerospace Applications (2nd Edition)

A special issue of Aerospace (ISSN 2226-4310). This special issue belongs to the section "Aeronautics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2024) | Viewed by 10259

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Gianpietro Di Rito

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile ed Industriale, Università di Pisa, Pisa, Italy
Interests: aerospace mechatronics; flight control systems; modelling and simulation; control design; diagnostic and prognostic condition-monitoring; experimental testing
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Aircraft electrification is one of the most important and strategic initiatives currently supporting the innovation of the aviation industry. This manifests in the well-known more-electric aircraft concept (with the ultimate aim of achieving the all-electric long-term target), which aims at the gradual replacement of onboard systems based on mechanical, hydraulic, or pneumatic power sources with electrically powered ones in order to reduce the weight and the costs, to optimize the energy, and to increase the eco-compatibility and the reliability of future aircraft.

A key technological enabler for pursuing these challenging objectives is the electro-mechanical actuation. The applicability of electro-mechanical actuators (EMAs) in aerospace has been proven in terms of dynamic performances; however, it still entails several concerns in terms of reliability/safety as well of operation in harsh environments. In civil aircraft, EMAs are often avoided for safety-critical functions (flight controls, brakes, landing gears, nose wheel steering), essentially because the statistical database on components fault modes is poor.

Following the relevant success achieved by a previous volume with the same title (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/aerospace/special_issues/Electro_mechanical_actuators), this Special Issue is focused on advancements and innovations in the design, the architectural definition, the reliability/safety analysis, the control design, the condition-monitoring and the experimental testing of EMAs for safety-critical aerospace applications.

We encourage the submission of research papers on the above topics, as we are strongly interested in works that could speed up the progress toward more-electric flights.

Dr. Gianpietro Di Rito
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Aerospace is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • high-fidelity modelling
  • digital twin
  • physics-of-failure
  • fault-tolerant systems
  • jamming-tolerant EMAs
  • analytical redundancy
  • diagnostics and prognostics
  • failure transient analysis
  • reliability/safety analysis
  • experimental validation
  • innovative designs

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Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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19 pages, 819 KiB  
Article
Performance and Reliability Evaluation of Innovative High-Lift Devices for Aircraft Using Electromechanical Actuators
by Carlos Cabaleiro de la Hoz, Marco Fioriti and Luca Boggero
Aerospace 2024, 11(6), 468; https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace11060468 - 11 Jun 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1379
Abstract
In the last decades, electromechanical actuators started to be introduced in transport aircraft for primary and secondary flight control surfaces. Some innovative architectures have been proposed in the literature to use these actuators for high-lift devices (flaps and slats). The state-of-the-art architecture is [...] Read more.
In the last decades, electromechanical actuators started to be introduced in transport aircraft for primary and secondary flight control surfaces. Some innovative architectures have been proposed in the literature to use these actuators for high-lift devices (flaps and slats). The state-of-the-art architecture is built with a central mechanical shaft powered by a power distribution unit connected to ballscrew actuators that actuate the flap and slat surfaces. New innovative concepts have the potential to improve the state-of-the-art architectures. However, there is a lack of quantitative results for such innovative architectures. A new methodology is proposed to preliminarily estimate performance and reliability aspects of conventional and innovative architectures. This allows quantitative comparisons to finally be obtained. The methodology is applied to a new architecture that uses electromechanical actuators for flaps and slats, providing results in terms of performance and reliability and comparing them to the current state-of-the-art high-lift devices. Results show that the new architecture is lighter than the reference one and can be more reliable. This is achieved thanks to the removal of the mechanical links among components, which allows each control surface to be deployed independently from the others. This highly increases the operational reliability of the system. Two cases are analyzed, with and without actuator jamming. This provides more realistic results since this failure mode is currently the main reason why electromechanical actuators are not being used for more applications. The innovative architecture outperforms the conventional one in the case where the electromechanical actuators are not affected by the jamming failure mode. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Electro-Mechanical Actuators for Safety-Critical Aerospace Applications (2nd Edition))
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20 pages, 8599 KiB  
Article
Evaluation of the Multiaxial Fatigue Life of Electro-Mechanical Actuator for Aircraft Blade Pitch Control Based on Certification Standards
by Young-Cheol Kim, Dong-Hyeop Kim and Sang-Woo Kim
Aerospace 2024, 11(1), 91; https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace11010091 - 18 Jan 2024
Viewed by 1549
Abstract
To achieve the commercialization of electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircrafts, which have recently garnered attention as the next-generation means of transportation, objective certification based on rigorous procedures is essential. With the advancement of structural analysis technology, aircraft airworthiness standards recommend a [...] Read more.
To achieve the commercialization of electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircrafts, which have recently garnered attention as the next-generation means of transportation, objective certification based on rigorous procedures is essential. With the advancement of structural analysis technology, aircraft airworthiness standards recommend a combination of testing and analytical methods to demonstrate structural integrity. In this study, we propose analytical techniques for demonstrating the structural integrity of components for eVTOL aircrafts in accordance with airworthiness standards. We evaluated the static structural integrity and fatigue safety of an electro-mechanical actuator. Multibody dynamics analysis was performed to calculate the loads for application in finite element analysis. Subsequently, static analysis and fatigue analysis based on finite element analysis were conducted to calculate the safety margin and fatigue life of all key components. Therefore, we have confirmed the feasibility of utilizing analytical methods for the structural integrity assessment of aircraft components. We propose the utilization of the technique introduced in this study as one of the approaches for demonstrating compliance with airworthiness standards for eVTOL aircrafts through the application of analytical methods. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Electro-Mechanical Actuators for Safety-Critical Aerospace Applications (2nd Edition))
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15 pages, 4801 KiB  
Article
An Intelligent Control and a Model Predictive Control for a Single Landing Gear Equipped with a Magnetorheological Damper
by Quang-Ngoc Le, Hyeong-Mo Park, Yeongjin Kim, Huy-Hoang Pham, Jai-Hyuk Hwang and Quoc-Viet Luong
Aerospace 2023, 10(11), 951; https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace10110951 - 11 Nov 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1675
Abstract
Aircraft landing gear equipped with a magnetorheological (MR) damper is a semi-active system that contains nonlinear behavior, disturbances, uncertainties, and delay times that can have a huge impact on the landing’s performance. To solve this problem, this paper adopts two types of controllers, [...] Read more.
Aircraft landing gear equipped with a magnetorheological (MR) damper is a semi-active system that contains nonlinear behavior, disturbances, uncertainties, and delay times that can have a huge impact on the landing’s performance. To solve this problem, this paper adopts two types of controllers, which are an intelligent controller and a model predictive controller, for a landing gear equipped with an MR damper to improve the landing gear performance considering response time in different landing cases. A model predictive controller is built based on the mathematical model of the landing gear system. An intelligent controller based on a neural network is designed and trained using a greedy bandit algorithm to improve the shock absorber efficiency at different aircraft masses and sink speeds. In this MR damper, the response time is assumed to be constant at 20 ms, which is similar to the response time of the commercial MR damper. To verify the efficiency of the proposed controllers, numerical simulations compared with a passive damper and a skyhook controller in different landing cases are executed. The major finding indicates that the suggested controller performs better in various landing scenarios than other controllers in terms of shock absorber effectiveness and adaptability. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Electro-Mechanical Actuators for Safety-Critical Aerospace Applications (2nd Edition))
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13 pages, 4014 KiB  
Article
Parametric Analysis of the Toothed Electromagnetic Spring Based on the Finite Element Model
by Xiaoyuan Zheng, Cheng Zhang, Yifang Lou, Guangming Xue and Hongbai Bai
Aerospace 2023, 10(9), 750; https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace10090750 - 25 Aug 2023
Viewed by 1230
Abstract
Active vibration control shows excellent performance in vibration isolation. In this work, the finite element model of a toothed electromagnetic spring (TES) is established using ANSYS Maxwell software. Subsequently, a static characteristic experiment of the TES is carried out, and the validity of [...] Read more.
Active vibration control shows excellent performance in vibration isolation. In this work, the finite element model of a toothed electromagnetic spring (TES) is established using ANSYS Maxwell software. Subsequently, a static characteristic experiment of the TES is carried out, and the validity of the model is verified. Based on the established finite element model, the influence of key structural parameters on the static characteristics of the electromagnetic spring is analyzed. The results show that the parameters of the magnetic teeth have a significant impact on the performance of the electromagnetic spring. As the number of teeth increases, the electromagnetic force first increases and then decreases. With the increase in the tooth height or width, the maximum electromagnetic force gradually increases to the maximum value and then stabilizes. It should be noted that the tooth width simultaneously affects the maximum electromagnetic force, stiffness characteristics, and effective working range of the TES. This work provides a basis for further exploring the application of electromagnetic springs within the field of active vibration control. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Electro-Mechanical Actuators for Safety-Critical Aerospace Applications (2nd Edition))
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Review

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22 pages, 6771 KiB  
Review
Progress in Redundant Electromechanical Actuators for Aerospace Applications
by Fawaz Yahya Annaz and Malaka Miyuranga Kaluarachchi
Aerospace 2023, 10(9), 787; https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace10090787 - 7 Sep 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 3646
Abstract
The power to move aircraft control surfaces has advanced from being manually generated (by the pilot and transmitted via rods and links) to electrically transmitted (via wires) to operate control surface actuators. Various hydraulic, electromagnetic, and electromechanical architectures have been developed to provide [...] Read more.
The power to move aircraft control surfaces has advanced from being manually generated (by the pilot and transmitted via rods and links) to electrically transmitted (via wires) to operate control surface actuators. Various hydraulic, electromagnetic, and electromechanical architectures have been developed to provide the necessary power and to maintain the expected redundancy. Numerous aircraft actuator system designs have been proposed in the past decades, but a comprehensive review has yet to be undertaken. This review paper aims to fill this gap by providing a critical review of the actuation system designs developed for a variety of aircraft. The review focuses on aircraft actuator system designs, namely: electrohydraulic actuator systems, electromechanical actuator systems, and the force-fighting effect in redundant actuation systems. The significance and operational principle of each actuator system are critically analysed and discussed in the review. The paper also evaluates the solution proposed to address force-fight equalization (or force-fight cancelation) in force or torqued-summed architectures. Future trends in redundant actuation system development with reduced force-fighting effect in aircraft actuator systems are also addressed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Electro-Mechanical Actuators for Safety-Critical Aerospace Applications (2nd Edition))
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