Numerical research on the cooling performance of an aircraft electromechanical actuator based on heat pipes-fuel and heat pipes-ram air cooling conception

Abstract

Numerical research is carried out on the cooling performance of an aircraft electromechanical actuator (EMA) using heat pipes. The theoretical model is established to describe the heat transfer processes in the EMA, which is validated by comparing the numerical and experimental results. The heat transfer characteristics of the EMA using two different cooling methods, heat pipes-fuel and heat pipes-ram air, are studied by numerical simulation. For the heat pipes-fuel cooling method, impact of the coolant flow velocity (0–0.015 m/s) on the cooling performance of the EMA is studied, based on which fins are designed on the condenser of heat pipes to improve the cooling performance. The results show that it is an efficient way to cool the electromechanical actuator with heat pipes-fuel cooling method and the heat dissipation rate of the EMA can be improved by 28.8% by using fins. In addition, the heat pipes-ram air cooling method could cool the EMA efficiently with the ram air temperature properly controlled.