Redundant, Thin-Wing, High-Pressure, Direct-Drive Valve Actuation System

Advanced, thin-wing, military aircraft impose difficult space constraints on the design of flight control actuators, resulting in a trend to higher system pressures. Fault-tolerant electro-hydraulic design, combined with increasing bandwidth dynamic requirements, suggests the use of smart actuation with local, servo-loop closures and decentralized data processing capability for improved control and failure management. A partially flightworthy version of a smart actuation system has been developed for a hypothetical aircraft fast-aileron application. The system presently is in a laboratory test program to demonstrate performance under flight-simulated conditions. High-pressure (8000-psi), direct-drive, parallel servoactuators with multichannel analog control and multiprocessor digital redundancy management are integrated into the actuation system. Important aspects of the design and development process are provided with emphasis on the redundancy management system.