Aerospace actuator design: A comparative analysis of Permanent Magnet and Induction Motor configurations

In this paper, a comparative design of actuators for aerospace applications based on Induction Motor (IM) and Permanent Magnet Motor (PMM) technologies is undertaken, by means of a combined electromagnetic and thermal evaluation. Initially, 3D time-stepping finite element analysis is employed for the determination of the actuators basic dimensional and operating characteristics. As the actuator thermal constraints constitute a key-feature of the respective systems, the proposed configurations are compared on the basis of equal thermal evacuation. The two configurations considered are in a next step optimized through the application of specific minimization of their performance-technical related costs. Both resulting IM and PMM optimal configurations present complementary advantages for this class of applications.