Fatigue-mitigating controller design for a slender flexible antenna

Author

Fravolini, M.L. ; Ficola, A. ; La Cava, M.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electron. & Inf. Eng., Univ. of Perugia, Perugia, Italy

fYear

2001

fDate

4-7 Sept. 2001

Firstpage

96

Lastpage

101

Abstract

In this paper the problem of fatigue mitigation in a slender flexible antenna has been addressed. The structure is subject to wind loads, which cause continuous stress cycles, giving rise to structural fatigue and breakage and reducing the service life. A robust active controller is introduced with the aim to reduce the amplitude of the stress cycles, despite model uncertainties; in particular an output feedback μ-controller has been designed, using as feedback variables the absolute accelerations of some points along the structure. The effectiveness of the control scheme has been evaluated by means of the Miner´s index for the most significant structural elements. The performance has been compared with that of a passive mass damper. Simulations show the effectiveness of the μ-controller.

Keywords

antennas; control system synthesis; fatigue; feedback; flexible structures; robust control; uncertain systems; Miner index; continuous stress cycle; fatigue-mitigating controller design; feedback variable; model uncertainty; output feedback μ-controller design; robust active controller; slender flexible antenna; structural breakage; structural fatigue; wind load; Accelerometers; Actuators; Antennas; Fatigue; Robustness; Stress; Uncertainty; Active Control of Structures and Space Stations; Control of Complex Systems; Fatigue Mitigation; Robust Control;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Control Conference (ECC), 2001 European

Conference_Location

Porto

Print_ISBN

978-3-9524173-6-2

Type

conf

Filename

7075888