Simulation of an All-Electric Flight Control System for the Evaluation of Power Consumption

The complete electrification of aircraft power systems entails the implementation of smart logics for sharing the available energy among the loads, and the design of these logics requires the characterisation of the power absorption of each on-board system as a function of mission phase and aircraft operating point, also taking into account the level of criticality of the function implemented by the system itself. The paper describes the models of the electro-mechanical systems used for the flight control actuation of a regional aircraft, with the basic objective of evaluating the power requests that have to be fulfilled both continuously and completely for this safety-critical equipment. The Flight Control System (FCS) model is composed of both primary and secondary flight controls. The control surfaces are driven by Electro-Mechanical Actuators (EMAs) and all the EMA models refer to actuators with a 3-phase synchronous brushless motor and mechanical transmission. Simulation tests have been performed to assess the maximum power flows characterizing the system, with reference to severe operative conditions.