Active vibration damping of bladed structures

This paper investigates the potential of using an active control system to mitigate broadband vibrations of bladed structures. Piezoelectric patches are used for both sensing the motion and actuating the control force. To maximize control authority, the size and location of piezoelectric patches are optimized based on maximizing the strain energy. Two new designs of active control law, which are inspired by force-feedback configuration, are developed for the plant having alternating pole-zero pairs in the frequency response function (FRF). Numerical simulations are performed to assess the performance of the designed control system in terms of the closed-loop damping of the system with high modal density. The parameters of the control law are tuned based on maximizing the minimum damping of the first family of modes. Experimental tests are performed to validate the numerical design.