Experimental Research on a Multi-modal Active Damping System for Transonic Wind-Tunnel Tests

Aims: In transonic wind tunnel tests, large-amplitude and low-frequency vibration is easily produced on the sting which is used to support the test model. In that case, the quality of the aerodynamic data obtained from the tests would dramatically deteriorate and the security of the staffs and instruments would be threatened. This paper aims at establishing a multi-modal active damping system, which can realize active vibration control of the sting used in wind tunnels. Methods: The hardware platform of the first-two-order vibration damping system based on eight piezoelectric stacks is set up and the realtime control software is designed to verify the feasibility and practicability of the system. Evaluation of the system is carried out in a 2.4 m × 2.4 m transonic wind tunnel. Conclusion: Using a scaled transport plane as the test model, the results show that over 80.6% reduction of the vibration amplitude and 95.6% energy elimination could be achieved by applying this damping system. The success of the system provides an effective way to tackle the harmful vibration problems in wind tunnel tests.