An active damping vibration control system for wind tunnel models

Abstract

In wind tunnels, long cantilever sting support systems with low structural damping encounter flow separation and turbulence during wind tunnel tests, which results in destructive low-frequency and big-amplitude resonance, leading to data quality degradation and test envelope limitation. To ensure planed test envelope and obtain high-quality data, an active damping vibration control system independent of balance signal based on stackable piezoelectric actuators and velocity feedback using accelerometer, is proposed to improve the support stability and wind tunnel testing safety in transonic wind tunnel. Meanwhile, a design of powerful sting-root embedded active damping device is given and an active vibration control method is presented based on the mechanism analysis of aircraft model vibration. Furthermore, a self-adaptive fuzzy Proportion Differentiation (PD) control model is proposed to realize control parameters adjustment automatically for various testing conditions. Besides, verification tests are performed in laboratory and a continuous transonic wind tunnel. Experimental results indicate that the aircraft model does not vibrate obviously from −4° to 11° at Ma = 0.6, the number of useable angle-of-attack has increased by 7° at Ma = 0.6 and 5° at Ma = 0.7 respectively, satisfying the requirements of practical wind tunnel tests.