Robust Anti-windup Design for Active Trailing Edge Flaps in Active Rotor Applications

Active trailing edge flap actuators play a significant role in active rotor applications whereby certain performance aspects, such as reduction of vibratory hub loads, are able to be improved in more economical ways in comparison to other active approaches. Feedback control systems are expected to be required in order to offer a desired actuator performance in the face of air loads and actuator uncertainty. However the operation of feedback controllers under significant air loads and varying RPM conditions may cause the controller to make demands beyond those achievable with the physical device, resulting in significant performance degradation. For this reason, this paper explore the use of more advanced control tools, known as anti-windup systems, to deal with these control signal constraints and hence offer graceful performance degradation when operating in such a demanding regime. One specific anti-windup technique is explored in this work for vibration reduction applications. The benefits of this approach are shown to be significant and clearly exposed through a simulation example.