Performance Prediction of Hatch Cover Drive Assembly in Space Environment

The performance of the Hatch Cover Drive Assembly operated in space is quite important for aircrafts. However, it is hard to experimental studies in space. As an alternative, theoretical analysis and simulation are employed to predict their performances on the ground. Herein, a mathematical model of the drive assembly was first established and simulated in Matlab. The armature current and mechanical efficiency were analyzed with respect to the operating temperature and load torque. Furthermore, a test setup according to the model was built to verify the validity of the proposed mathematical model. As a result, the prediction results are consistent with the experimental results very well with a maximum error of 11.0% in the armature current and 11.6% in the mechanical efficiency. The mechanical efficiency achieves to be the maximum value in vacuum as the load torque of 3.5N·m. It has the best performance as working around the room temperature. The proposed model would be used to predict the performance of drive assembly working in space. Our findings would be helpful for the designing, manufacturing and selection of motors and reducers for spacecrafts usage in future.