Robust Control of Intelligent Rotor.

The performance and robustness of the intelligent rotors under feedback control depend on the fidelity of the models used in designing their controllers. This is also true for other kinds of smart structures. A computer aided robust control design program has been developed that takes the percentage of the variation on the parameters, as well as the desired number of modes to be included in the model and designs a robust controller that guarantees the stability of the system in presence of the formulated uncertainty. Moreover, the use of Terfenol-D magnetostrictive rods for actuation of an intelligent rotor is explored. The challenge in the use of these actuators in intelligent rotor applications is housing them in the structure of the rotor. The packaging of the Terfenol rod actuators, considered in this work, inside the structure of the rotor blade is based on lining the actuators inside the spar along the axis of the blade. This is possible due to the fact that most blades have a hollow D or box spar. The two ends of each actuator is sandwiched between two plates which, for flapwise actuation of the spar, are attached to the top and bottom of the spar, alternatively. This arrangement translate the actuator force to two point moments on the blade at the plate populations.... Intelligent rotor, Robust control, Magnetostrictive actuator.