Vibration Damping Using Electro-Hydrostatic Actuation Technology

Vibration damping finds its application in almost any system or structure subject to oscillatory excitations. Vehicles, or better, the intrinsic nature of the environments that surround and interact with them demand certain degree of adaptability of the vehicle subsystems to a wide range of working conditions. This requirement, together with the fast development of electronics and motion transducers, leads to the interesting possibility of designing and implementing adaptive damping devices. In a context where technological alternatives are numerous, the present dissertation explores the potentialities and limitations of the electro-hydrostatic actuation (EHA) technology as a vibration suppression device. For this purpose, the case study of the lead-lag motion damping of a rotorcraft blade is proposed. Thus, the workflow of the thesis introduces modeling and design aspects that can be applied to any EHA damping application. Considerations about power consumption and technology limitations are covered as well. Then, after a brief introduction to the lead-lag damping phenomenon, the design of the adaptive damper is carried out. This phase yields an off-the-shelf component prototype and a custom EHA damper that integrates all the components in a single manifold. Finally, both devices are tested in an experimental context to assess the validity of the solution for the selected application.