Skynetics can assist your company with the development of Electro-Hydraulic Actuation (EHA) systems. Recently Skynetics presented at the prestigious Aerospace System Technology (AST) conference in Hamburg. The conference highlighted the novel development of an EHA system to perform the extension and retraction of a large aircraft’s landing gear.

The technology is identified as an enabler for the More Electrical Aircraft (MEA). Presented at the conference was a collection of modelling and simulation tools utilised to optimise the system’s performance.

The challenging performance aspect of this system is the complex interaction of hydraulic components, electrical motors, a strong interaction with the mechanical dynamics of the landing gear structure and complex control algorithms.

A multi-domain analyses approach was used where a three-way co-simulation was performed using Amesim, ADAMS and Matlab/Simulink allowing a significant reduction in model development, simulation and analyses time.

AMESIM – this modelling environment developed by Siemens/LMS provided the software platform to model the hydraulic properties of the system. The model captured the influence of thermal effects changing the hydraulic fluid properties and fluid cavitation.

ADAMS – developed by MSc, this software package capture the complex 3D kinematics of the landing gear mechanical system including properties such as aerodynamics loads, joint friction, spring loads, mass and inertia properties.

Matlab/Simulink – provided by the MathWorks the software package captures the complex algorithms of the EHA’s pump and motor controller, the data buses of the aircraft and the high level aircraft avionics controller.

Contact Skynetics today to explore how these and other advanced engineering methods can be deployed to optimise your complex simulation challenges.