Abstract
This paper presents the synchronous vibration control of a rotor system using an Active Air Bearing(AAB). In order to suppress the synchronous vibration, it is necessary to actively control the air film pressure or the air film thickness. In this study, active pads are used to control the air film thickness. Active pads are supported by the pivots containing piezoelectric actuators and their radial positions can be actively controlled by applying voltage to the actuators. Disturbances and various kinds of external force can cause the shaft vibration as well as the change of the air film thickness. The dynamic behaviors of a rotary system supported by two tilting-pad gas bearings and its active stabilization using the tilting-pads as actuators are investigated numerically. The PID controller is applied to the tilting-pad gas bearing system with three pads, two of which contain piezoelectric actuators. To test the vapidity of the theoretical method, the performance of this control method is evaluated through experiments. The experimental results show the effectiveness of the control system for suppressing the unbalanced response of the rigid modes.
