Rolls-royce Corporation

Alexander M Cargill

Graham P Eatwell

Colin F Ross

Elizabeth Acton

A control system actively controls at least one troublesome mode of an unsteady motion phenomenon in turbomachinery in order to enable an increase in the operating range of the turbomachinery. For example, rotor blade flutter or rotating stall may be controlled in a turbocompressor. The control system has a control bandwidth which is at least partly coextensive with the bandwidth of the unsteady motion phenomenon and operates by passing sensor signals related to the unsteady motion phenomenon from a sensor array in the turbomachine to a mode filter which produces a signal or signals which are related to the troublesome mode or modes. The selected mode signals are amplified and phase-shifted by time-variable amounts so as to produce control signals having controlled amplitude and phase relationship to the troublesome mode. Actuators in an actuator array continuously driven by the control signals and produce physical effects in the turbomachine which act counter to the troublesome mode without exciting others.

Active control of unsteady motion phenomena in turbomachinery

A control system actively controls at least one troublesome mode of an unsteady motion phenomenon in turbomachinery in order to enable an increase in the operating range of the turbomachinery. For example, rotor blade flutter or rotating stall may be controlled in a turbocompressor. The control system has a control bandwidth which is at least partly coextensive with the bandwidth of the unsteady motion phenomenon and operates by passing sensor signals related to the unstady motion phenomenon from a sensor array in the turbomachine to a mode filter which produces a signal or signals which are related to the troublesome mode or modes. The selected mode signals are amplified and phase-shifted by time-variable amounts so as to produce control signals having controlled amplitude and phase relationship to the troublesome mode. Actuators in an actuaor array are continuously driven by the control signals and produce physical effects in the turbomachine which act counter to the troublesome mode without exciting others.

A control system actively controls at least one troublesome mode of an unsteady motion phenomenon in turbomachinery in order to enable an increase in the operating range of the turbomachinery. For example, rotor blade flutter or rotating stall may be controlled in a turbocompressor. The control system has a control bandwidth which is at least partly coextensive with the bandwidth of the unsteady motion phenomenon and operates by passing sensor signals related to the unsteady motion phenomenon from a sensor array in the turbomachine to a mode filter which produces a signal or signals which are related to the troublesome mode or modes. The selected mode signals are amplified and phase-shifted by time-variable amounts so as to produce control signals having controlled amplitude and phase relationship to the troublesome mode. Actuators in an actuator array are continuously driven by the control signals and produce physical effects in the turbomachine which act counter to the troublesome mode without exciting others.

A control system actively controls at least one troublesome mode of an unsteady motion phenomenon in turbomachinery in order to enable an increase in the operating range of the turbomachinery. For example, rotor blade flutter or rotating stall may be controlled in a turbocompressor. The control system has a control bandwidth which is at least partly coexstensive with the bandwidth of the unsteady motion phenomenon and operates by passing sensor signals related to the unsteady motion phenomenon from a sensor array in the turbomachine to a mode filter which produces a signal or signals which are related to the troublesome mode or modes. The selected mode signals are amplified and phase-shifted by time-variable amounts so as to produce control signals having controlled amplitude and phase relationship to the troublesome mode. Actuators in an actuator array are continuously driven by the control signals and produce physical effects in the turbomachine which act counter to the troublesome mode without exciting others.

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Derby, United Kingdom

Alexander M Cargill