Architecture Analysis for Regenerative Energy Management in an Electromechanical Actuation System Design

摘要

Electromechanical actuation is a form of actuation in which the actuator piston is driven by an electrical motor rather than a hydraulic system. The use of electromechanical actuators (EMAs) will eliminate hydraulic lines which are heavy and costly to maintain. Another benefit of EMAs is that they can regenerate energy under certain loading conditions. Typically, the regenerated energy is simply fed to resistor where it is dissipated as heat. This study explores the option of storing regenerated energy. Several storage architectures are considered, and then the optimal storage architecture is selected. This optimal architecture is compared to the dissipation architecture being used today. The dissipation and storage architectures will be evaluated based upon their volume, weight, and thermal characteristics.