Active Vibration Suppression of the Cantilever Sting for Wind Tunnel Models with Piezoelectric Control

Abstract

In wind tunnel tests, the low-frequency and large-amplitude vibration of the cantilever sting results in poor test data in pitch plane and yaw plane, and even threatens the safety. To ensure the quality of the test data, an active vibration control method and system is proposed to resist the vibration in any direction, which is based on stackable piezoelectric actuators and velocity feedbacks using accelerometers, independent of balance signals. Firstly, the motion equation of the cantilever sting with stackable piezoelectric actuators is obtained by Hamilton's principle with the assumed mode method. Then, the piezoelectric control mechanism is qualitatively analyzed and a controller based on PD algorithm is presented to strengthen the damping and mass characteristics of the cantilever sting using velocity feedbacks. Finally, an active vibration control system was established and verification experiments were conducted. The results indicate that damping ratio is enhanced more than 6 times. Spectral analyses show attenuations of more than 22 DB in any direction. The vibration control effect is ideal and the proposed active vibration control system and method were applied in real wind tunnel tests.