Numerical and Experimental Modal Control of Flexible Rotor Using Electromagnetic Actuator

The present work is dedicated to active modal control applied to flexible rotors. The effectiveness of the corresponding techniques for controlling a flexible rotor is tested numerically and experimentally. Two different approaches are used to determine the appropriate controllers. The first uses the linear quadratic regulator and the second approach is the fuzzy modal control. This paper is focused on the electromagnetic actuator, which in this case is part of a hybrid bearing. Due to numerical reasons it was necessary to reduce the size of the model of the rotating system so that the design of the controllers and estimator could be performed. The role of the Kalman estimator in the present contribution is to estimate the modal states of the system and to determine the displacement of the rotor at the position of the hybrid bearing. Finally, numerical and experimental results demonstrate the success of the methodology conveyed.