Compact dual-output power converter for an Aerospace electrical landing gear actuation system

The current trend in the aircraft industry is to evolve towards more rdquopower-by-wirerdquo or rdquoMore Electricrdquo architectures in which electrical power moves aircraft flight surfaces. Benefits of a more electric architecture include improvements in environmental impact and reliability as well as reduced maintenance costs. In this paper power electronic technology used in the rdquopower-by-wirerdquo type nose landing gear system is investigated for future more electric aircraft. Furthermore, use of a dual-output power converter concept for an electromechanically actuated nose landing gear system is analyzed. The design, construction and testing of the above mentioned power converter with higher technology readiness level is detailed. In the dual-output power converter concept large components, such as the dc link capacitor, heat-sink, control electronics and transducers are shared between two Electro Mechanical Actuators (EMA) which are used sequentially in the deployment of aircraft nose landing gear. This mutual component approach combines the advantages of dual-use power converters with the flexibility of one power converter per application. Results of the converter operating with EMAs are presented for a range of test conditions in order to validate the simulation study.