Methodology for Preliminary Flight Control Actuator Design

Abstract

In this paper, a methodology for the preliminary design of decentralized civil-use flight control actuators is presented that is able to perform the calculations with a very small amount of input data. This enables the user to achieve good actuator key characteristics regarding the weight, power, and volume in the preliminary aircraft design stage without the need for an empirical database. Optionally adjustable setting parameters of the individual components allow the component design to be customized in detail. Both electromechanical and electrohydrostatic actuators are considered. The methodology presented here aims at sizing each individual component of the actuators in terms of volume, mass, and power consumption. The components are broken down into simple geometric shapes where possible. The methodology is evaluated on several actuators of different performance and weight classes from 3.2 kg up to 66.9 kg and provides more accurate results than other common approaches, which is suitable in the preliminary aircraft design stage.