Active damping inertial electro-mechanical ballscrew actuator

The damping of vibrations on aircrafts and rotorcrafts can provide life extension or weight reduction on those structures on which the vibration load is a significant amount of load endurance spectrum. A hybrid active-passive inertial actuator system is presented focusing the advantages of a ballscrew based actuator and of a non-conventional three phase control drive. The dynamics of the mechanical system, of the electric motor and of the associated electronic control unit has been simulated as an integrated system on a MatLab/Simulink® platform. The design of the damper has been finalized by simulation, including full three-phase bridge drive with independent phases (no star-point) and motor control law and mechanics and elasticity of the system. The test results on a full-scale prototype of the damper are presented.