An Approach to the Prototyping of an Optimized Limited Stroke Actuator to Drive a Low Pressure Exhaust Gas Recirculation Valve

The purpose of this article is to describe the design of a limited stroke actuator and the corresponding prototype to drive a Low Pressure (LP) Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) valve for use in Internal Combustion Engines (ICEs). The direct drive actuator topology is an axial flux machine with two air gaps in order to minimize the rotor inertia and a bipolar surface-mounted permanent magnet in order to respect an 80 degrees angular stroke. Firstly, the actuator will be described and optimized under constraints of a 150 ms time response, a 0.363 N . m minimal torque on an angular range from 0 degrees to 80 degrees and prototyping constraints. Secondly, the finite element method (FEM) using the FLUX-3D (R) software (CEDRAT, Meylan, France) will be used to check the actuator performances with consideration of the nonlinear effect of the iron material. Thirdly, a prototype will be made and characterized to compare its measurement results with the analytical model and the FEM model results. With these electromechanical behavior measurements, a numerical model is created with Simulink (R) in order to simulate an EGR system with this direct drive actuator under all operating conditions. Last but not least, the energy consumption of this machine will be estimated to evaluate the efficiency of the proposed EGR electromechanical system.