Active damper using fuzzy controller

This paper presents the numerical fuzzy control of an experimental active damper. The damper has two flexible metallic bellows connected to a rigid reservoir filled with fluid. When one of the bellows is connected to a vibrating structure, a periodic flow passes through a variable internal orifice and the damping effect is produced. The size of the orifice is adjusted by a control system that positions the conical core into a conical cavity. This paper presents the finite element model and an experimental reduced second order dynamic model of the damper prototype, which is suitable for applications where real time control is required. These simple model parameters are identified by an analysis on the frequency domain. Then using an impulsive excitation force for the constant orifice (passive system) as for the variable orifice (active system) the system is evaluated. A fuzzy controller was designed to simulate the operation of the active system. The obtained results show that the active damper has better efficiency compared to passive system.