Integrated Power and Vibration Control of Gyroelastic Body with Variable-Speed Control Moment Gyros

Abstract The gyroelastic body refers to a flexible structure with distributed angular momentum exchange devices (AMEDs), such as the momentum wheels (MWs) or the control moment gyros (CMGs). The amplitude or the direction of the angular momentum of the rotors in the AMEDs can be changed to produce torques for vibration suppression of the flexible structure. In order to take full advantage of the AMEDs on the flexible structure, the AMEDs are also used for energy storage in this study, thus, an integrated power and vibration control system (IPVCS) is obtained. In this paper, the single-gimbal variable speeds control momentum gyros (VSCMGs) are chosen as the distributed AMEDs mounting on a constrained flexible structure. It can work in a “CMG & MW” mode and a “VSCMG” mode for simultaneous vibration suppression and energy storage. First, the dynamics of a constrained gyroelastic body is established, whereas the power equation of the rotors is deduced. Second, the feedback control laws are designed when the VSCMGs work in the CMG & MW mode and the VSCMG mode, respectively. Finally, numerical examples are presented for a flexible truss with distributed VSCMGs to verify the effectiveness of the proposed feedback control strategies.