Adaptive Control of Active

Balancing Systems for

Kwang-Keun Shin1
e-mail: kwang-keun.shin@gm.com
Jun Ni
e-mail: junni@engin.umich.edu
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
The University of Michigan,
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Speed-Varying Rotors Using
Feedforward Gain Adaptation
Technique
This paper presents a new adaptive control method for active balancing of speed-varying
rotors. It is developed based on the feedforward gain adaptation problem, which is a
classical technique in the continuous-time adaptive control area. The condition for using
this technique is the need for strictly positive realness of the transfer function. In this
research, the technique is re-examined and modified to be appropriate for the balancing
problem. It is also shown that the rotor dynamics of single-plane balancing problem can
easily be converted to a strictly positive real transfer function and that, consequently, the
feedfoward gain adaptation technique can be applied. This paper demonstrates that the
developed method can be applied to a simple Jeffcott rotor and can also be extended to
the single-plane balancing problem of general flexible rotor. Simulation studies show that
the new method works well as expected. 关DOI: 10.1115/1.1388015兴

1 Introduction it wastes useful production time 共chip-to-chip time兲, which is criti-

Active balancing is a modern balancing technology designed to
facilitate the balancing of a rotating machine without stopping its
operation. Ever since the first attempt by Van de Vegte 关1兴, the
active balancing technique has been improved and modified by
many researchers using various kinds of active balancers and ac-
tive balancing methods.
Active balancing can be achieved by combining a disk, which
has two movable correction weights inside, to the rotating shaft of
a rotor so that the disk can rotate together with the rotor. As the
example shown in Fig. 1, two correction weights are designed to
move along the circular tracks to form a correction imbalance
vector w for compensating for the original imbalance vector u.
Often these weights are driven by two servo motors attached to
the disk 共Van de Vegte 关2兴, Gosiewski 关3,4兴, Lee et al. 关5,6兴, or by
an electro-magnetic device that enables correction weights move
inside by applying magnetic field from outside 共Dyer et al. 关7兴兲.
Most of active balancing methods developed by far are de-
signed for constant- speed balancing. In many situations, how-
ever, constant-speed or steady-state active balancing is not effec-
tive. When a large turbine starts up, it passes several critical
speeds at which the vibrations are dangerous and, therefore, it is
desirable to reduce the vibration during the run-up procedure as
well as constant speed operation. In the case of jet fighters, the
speed of the turbo engine changes very frequently for the fast
maneuvering of the aircraft, thus balancing of the turbo engine is
also a critical issue. Another example can be found in active bal-
ancing of modern machine tools in which tools are changed very
frequently, resulting in unpredictable imbalance of spindle/tool
assembly. After a tool change, the spindle/tool assembly acceler-
ates up to cutting speed within several seconds and starts cutting
as soon as it reaches cutting speed. Although constant speed bal-
ancing can still be used in this situation, it is not desirable because
1
Kwang-Keun Shin is currently with GM R&D, MC 480-106-390, 30500 Mound
Road, P.O. Box 9055, Warren, MI 48090-9055. E-mail: kwang- keun.shin@gm.com
Contributed by the Dynamics Systems and Control Division for publication in the
JOURNAL OF DYNAMIC SYSTEMS, MEASUREMENT, AND CONTROL. Manuscript
received by the Dynamic Systems and Conrol Division June 5, 1999. Associate
Editor: P. Voulgaris.
cal in modern production systems. Instead, the acceleration phase
can be used for balancing of spindle/tool assembly. In spite of
these practical situations, little research has been conducted for
active balancing of speed-varying rotors.
Another practical problem of active balancing systems is that
the dynamics of a rotor should be known for designing a control
algorithm. In general, however, modeling a rotor system and ob-
taining its dynamics requires specialized manpower, equipment
and time. Even when the dynamics are known initially, they
change over time for various reasons 共such as change of bearing
characteristics, load and operating condition兲. To avoid this un-
economical modeling procedure and to cope with changing dy-
namics, an adaptive control scheme is preferred. Although there
are several adaptive control methods for constant speed balancing
共Knospe et al. 关8兴, Dyer et al. 关7兴兲, few studies have been per-
formed for speed-varying situations.
This paper suggests a new active balancing method that consid-
ers the speed-varying situation and unknown dynamics. The main
idea is to consider the unbalance as an unknown gain and the
counter unbalance 共unbalance generated by the active balancing
actuator兲 as an adjustable gain to the rotor system, and to apply
the feedforward gain adaptation technique, which is a classical
problem in the field of continuous-time adaptive control. First, the
original feedforward gain adaptation problem is reviewed and
modified for the active balancing problem. Then, it is applied to
the active balancing problem of a simple Jeffcott model. Finally,
the developed technique is extended to the single plane active
balancing problem of the general flexible rotor. Simulations are
performed in both the Jeffcott rotor and flexible rotor cases.
2 Modified Feedforward Gain Adaptation Problem
for Active Balancing System
The feedforward gain adaptation problem is a classical problem
in the continuous time adaptive control area and detailed analysis
can be found in a textbook such as Åström 关9兴. In this paper, the
problem is reviewed and modified appropriately for the balancing
problem. In the original problem, all variables are real values.
However, in the balancing problem, all variables except the sys-

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 where ‘‘*’’ represents complex conjugate transpose and ␥ is a real
positive value. By taking the time derivative of the Lyapunov
function 共4兲 and substituting 共2兲 into it, the following equation can
be derived.
dV ␥
dt
1
⫽ x * 共 A T P⫹ PA 兲 x⫹ 共 u⫹w 兲 *
2 2
dw
dt 冋
⫹ ␥ 共 j⍀ 兲 e ⫺ j ␪ B T Px 册
⫹ 冋
1 dw
2 dt
*
册
⫹ ␥ 共 j⍀ 兲 e ⫺ j ␪ B T Px 共 u⫹w 兲

Fig. 1 Principle of active balancer

⫹
1
2冋共 u⫹w 兲 *
du du *
dt
⫹
dt
共 u⫹w 兲 册
⫺ 冋
␥ dw * ⫺ j ␪ T
2 dt
e B Px⫹
dw j ␪
dt
e x * PB 册 (5)

tem parameters are considered to be complex values. Figure 2 where ⍀⫽d ␪ /dt corresponds to the rotating speed.
illustrates the basic structure of the modified problem. By substituting Eq. 共3兲 into 共5兲 and by noting that B T Px⫽Cx
In Fig. 2, e j ␪ ( t ) is a known complex valued input to the system ⫽r, the following equation is obtained.

冋 册
共physically corresponding to the speed input for a given rotor
system兲, and r(t)⫽r X (t)⫹ jr Y (t) is the complex valued measure- dV ␥ 1 du du *
⫽⫺ x * Qx⫹ 共 u⫹w 兲 * ⫹ 共 u⫹w 兲
ment of the system 共physically corresponding to the vibration dt 2 2 dt dt

冋 册
measurement兲. u(t)⫽u x (t)⫹ ju y (t) is an unknown complex val-
ued gain 共physically corresponding to the existing unbalance兲, and ␥ dw * ⫺ j ␪ dw j ␪
⫺ e r⫹ e r*
w(t)⫽w x (t)⫹ jw y (t) is the adjustable complex valued gain 共or 2 dt dt

冋 册
control input, and physically corresponding unbalance generated
by active balancing actuator兲, where j⫽ 冑⫺1. The transfer func- 1 dw
⫹ 共 u⫹w 兲 * ⫹ ␥ 共 j⍀ 兲 e ⫺ j ␪ r
tion G S PR (p) is an unknown but stable, causal, and strictly posi- 2 dt

冋 册
tive real 共SPR兲 linear transfer function with real coefficients
共physically corresponding to the rotor system兲, where p represents 1 dw *
⫹ ⫹ ␥ 共 j⍀ 兲 e ⫺ j ␪ r 共 u⫹w 兲 (6)
the differential operator d/dt. The problem is to find an adapta- 2 dt
tion law for adjustable gain w that makes the total gain u⫹w zero
so that the output eventually goes to zero with unknown transfer If the adaptation law is chosen as follows,
function G S PR (p). From the block diagram in the Fig. 2, the dw
measurement or output of the system can be represented by, ⫽⫺ ␥ 共 j⍀ 兲 e ⫺ j ␪ r (7)
dt

冋
r 共 t 兲 ⫽G SPR共 p 兲 ⫺
d
dt
兵 共 u⫹w 兲 e j ␪ 其 册 (1) then it is obvious that the last two terms in Eq. 共6兲 vanishes. In
addition, the third term in Eq. 共6兲 also vanishes by the following
manner.
Since G S PR (p) is a causal linear transfer function with real coef-
ficients, Eq. 共1兲 can be rewritten as the following state space rep-
resentation.
2 dt 冋
1 dw * ⫺ j ␪
⫺ ␥ e r⫹
dw j ␪
dt
e r* 册
dx
dt
d
dt 冋
⫽Ax⫹B ⫺ 兵 共 u⫹w 兲 e j ␪ 其 , 册 r 共 t 兲 ⫽Cx (2) 1
⫽⫺ ␥ 关 ␥ 共 j⍀ 兲 e j ␪ r * e ⫺ j ␪ r⫺ ␥ 共 j⍀ 兲 e ⫺ j ␪ re j ␪ r * 兴 ⫽0
2
where A, B, and C are all real- valued matrices and x is a complex- (8)
valued state vector. Since G SPR(p) is strictly positive real, the
Kalman-Yakubovich Lemma 共Åström 关9兴兲 can be applied. It is Therefore, Eq. 共6兲 becomes,

冋 册
proven by the lemma that there exist positive definite matrices P
dV ␥ 1 du du *
and Q such that ⫽⫺ x * Qx⫹ 共 u⫹w 兲 * ⫹ 共 u⫹w 兲 (9)
dt 2 2 dt dt
T T
A P⫹ PA⫽⫺Q and B P⫽C (3)
Since the matrix Q is positive definite, the first term in Eq. 共9兲 is
By using the matrix P given by 共3兲, a Lyapunov function candi- negative for all nonzero x. The last term of Eq. 共9兲 depends on the
date to drive the states as well as total gain (u⫹w) to zero can be time derivative of the unkown gain u. Therefore, if the unknown
defined as follows. gain is constant or slowly varying, i.e. du/dt⬵0, then Eq. 共9兲 can
be written as,
␥ 1
V⫽ x * Px⫹ 共 u⫹w 兲 * 共 u⫹w 兲 (4) dV ␥
2 2
⫽⫺ x * Qx⭐0, ᭙x⫽0 (10)
dt 2
Since the states of the closed-loop system are not only x but also
(u⫹w), the time derivative of the Lyapunov function is, in fact,
positive-semidefinite and Eq. 共10兲 states just stability 共not
asymptotic stability兲 of the closed-loop system. This kind of situ-
ation frequently arises in direct adaptive control problems and we
can easily prove that, for example, using theorm 4.4 in 共Khalil
关10兴兲, x * Qx goes to zero as time goes to infinity, i.e.,
lim x * Qx⫽0 (11)
Fig. 2 Modified feedforward gain adaptation problem t→⬁

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 Since Q is positive-definite matrix, from Eq. 共11兲, it is obvious
that the state vector x goes to zero as time goes to infinity, and,
hence, the output r⫽Cx also goes to zero. Notice, from the con-
trol law 共7兲, that zero output produces constant w. Therefore, the
total gain (u⫹w) converges to a constant value. Moreover, if we
look into Eq. 共2兲, when x goes to zero, the input to the system also
goes to zero and, equivalently, magnitude of the input goes to
zero, i.e.,

lim ⫺
t→⬁
冋 d
dt 册冋
* d
册
兵 共 u⫹w 兲 e j ␪ 其 ⫺ 兵 共 u⫹w 兲 e j ␪ 其 ⫽0
dt
(12)

Since (u⫹w) goes to a constant, Eq. 共12兲 can be rewritten as,

lim ⍀ 2 共 u⫹w 兲 * 共 u⫹w 兲 ⫽0 (13)
t→⬁

Consequently, for any nonzero speed ⍀, the adaptation law 共7兲

makes the total gain (u⫹w) as well as the states x zero.
The adaptation law 共7兲 only uses the input and output of the
system. The exact transfer function G S PR (p) does not need to be
known. The only requirement is that G S PR (p) should be strictly
positive real. A stable rational transfer function G(p) with real
coefficient is positive real 共PR兲 if its frequency response G( j ␻ ) is Fig. 3 Jeffcott rotor with active balancer
nonnegative for all frequencies, i.e.,
Re关 G 共 j ␻ 兲兴 ⭓0, ᭙␻ (14)
In other words, a transfer function is positive real if its entire w 共 t 兲 ⫽m w b 共 t 兲 ⫽m w 关 b x 共 t 兲 ⫹ jb y 共 t 兲兴 (17)
Nyquist plot lies in the closed right half complex plane. In addi- where a and b are vectors from rotating center of the rotor to the
tion, a transfer function G(p) is strictly positive real 共SPR兲 if unbalance mass and the counter unbalance mass respectively.
G(p-␧) is positive real for some real ␧⬎0 共Åström 关9兴兲. With these notations, the equation of motion of the Jeffcott rotor
A 共strictly兲 positive real transfer function is a certain class of with active balancer can be easily derived by Newton’s second
transfer function that, in many cases, is hard to be encountered. law.
For a rotor balancing problem, however, it can be shown that the
transfer function from unbalance excitation to the vibration can, d 2r dr d2
with some modification, be easily converted to a strictly positive m ⫹c ⫹kr⫽⫺ 2 关共 u⫹w 兲 e j ␪ 兴 (18)
dt 2 dt dt
real one. To demonstrate this, the balancing problem for a simple
Jeffcott rotor is studied first and then this technique is extended 3.2 Adaptation Law „Control Law…. Equation 共18兲 can be
for a general flexible rotor. rewritten in the following form using differential operator p.

3 Adaptive Balancing of Jeffcott Rotor (19)

The ‘‘Jeffcott’’ rotor is the simplest but important model in
rotor dynamics because complicated rotor dynamics can be mod-
eled as a linear combination of Jeffcott rotors. Moreover, for ap-
plications such as flywheels or grinding wheels, the Jeffcott rotor
itself is a good model for the system for practical purposes.
3.1 Equation of Motion. The Jeffcott rotor consists of a
rigid disk of total mass m 共including unbalance mass and unbal-
ance correction mass兲 supported by a spring of stiffness k and a
damper of damping constant c. Figure 3 represents the side view
of a Jeffcott rotor with the active balancing system. The frame
兵 X,Y ,Z 其 is the inertial reference frame whose Z coordinate is
aligned to the bearing axis. The frame 兵 x,y,z 其 is the rotating
frame attached to the rotor whose origin coincides with the rotat-
ing center of the rotor. ␪ (t) is the rotation angle of the rotor with
respect to the inertial frame.
The motion of the rotating center of the rotor with respect to the
inertial reference frame is denoted as follows using complex no-
tation.
r 共 t 兲 ⫽r X 共 t 兲 ⫹ jr Y 共 t 兲 (15)
m u and m w denote the existing point unbalance mass and move-
able unbalance correction mass respectively. For most active bal-
ancing actuators, the movable unbalance correction vector is real-
ized by moving m w with respect to the rotating frame. The unit of
unbalance is mass times length. The mass unbalances u and w
with respect to the rotating frame are defined using complex no-
tation.
u⫽m u a⫽m u 共 a x ⫹ ja y 兲 (16)
where ␻ n ⫽ 冑k/m and ␨ ⫽c/ 冑4mk.
Equation 共19兲 can be represented by the block diagram in Fig.
4. This is exactly the same form as the modified feedforward gain
adaptation problem shown in Fig. 2, except for the strictly positive
realness of the transfer function. From this point of view, the
unbalances u and w are nothing but feedforward gains of the sys-
tem. The movable unbalance correction w can be considered as an
adjustable gain rather than an input to the system. In fact, the
input to the linear system is the rotating function e j ␪ , which is
predefined function decided by the given speed profile. Since e j ␪ is
not arbitrarily manipulatable, a conventional feedback control
schemes which change input are not applicable to this system.
Instead, by applying the suggested feedforward gain adaptation
technique, an adaptive gain adjustment law can be specified, that
makes w equal to –u so that the total gain is zero.
To apply the feedforward gain adaptatation technique, the
transfer function G(p) must be strictly positive real. In fact, G(p)
is positive real but not strictly positive real. This difficulty is
resolved by introducing an appropriate output filter G f (p) of the
following form.
Fig. 4 Block diagram of Jeffcott rotor

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 Fig. 5 Control block diagram of adaptive active balancing sys-
tem for Jeffcott rotor

共 p⫹␧ 兲
r f 共 t 兲 ⫽G f 共 p 兲 r 共 t 兲 ⫽ r共 t 兲 (20)
p Fig. 6 Speed profile of the Jeffcott rotor
where r f (t) denotes the filtered output and ␧ is some small posi-
tive value. By combining the output filter 共20兲 and Eq. 共19兲, the
filtered output can be written as follows. is set to a constant speed of 12,000 rpm. This speed profile is
selected to show the performance of the control law for three
(21) different situations, i.e., fast acceleration, varying speed around
one speed and constant speed. The unbalance of the rotor u is set
to u⫽⫺10⫹ j10 at t⫽0, then changed to u⫽10– j20 at t⫽3, and
finally set to u⫽⫺40⫹ j60 at t⫽6. The units of unbalance are
Now, Eq. 共21兲 is the same as Eq. 共1兲 and we could apply the g-mm. The output filter parameter was set to ␧⫽0.001.
adaptation law 共7兲 as long as G SPR(p) is strictly positive real. In Figure 7 shows the simulation results of the controlled vibration
fact, G SPR(p) is strictly positive real if ␧ is chosen appropriately. using different control gains. The gain ␥ has units of grams. Fig-
This can be easily verified by showing that G SPR(p⫺␧) is positive ure 7共a兲 is the vibration without control and 7共b兲, 7共c兲, and 7共d兲
real. The frequency response G SPR( j ␻ -␧) is, show the controlled vibration using ␥ ⫽0.001, ␥ ⫽0.01 and ␥
⫽0.1, respectively. As can be seen in the figure, large control gain
2 ␻ 2 共 ␨␻ n ⫺␧ 兲 ⫹ j ␻ 共 ␻ 2n ⫺ ␻ 2 ⫹␧ 2 ⫺2 ␨␻ n ␧ 兲 reduces a large amount of vibration. However, even for a small
G SPR共 j ␻ ⫺␧ 兲 ⫽ gain, the vibration goes to zero over time. Figure 8 shows the
m 关共 ␻ 2n ⫺ ␻ 2 ⫹␧ 2 ⫺2 ␨␻ n ␧ 兲 2 ⫹4 ␻ 2 共 ␨␻ n ⫺␧ 兲 2 兴
(22) actuator 共counter unbalance兲 movement during control. Figure 8
共a1兲, 共b1兲, and 共c1兲 plots the real parts of actuator movements for
To be positive real, the real part of G SPR( j ␻ ⫺␧) should be non- different control gains and 共a2兲, 共b2兲, and 共c2兲 represent the same
negative for all ␻ as shown by the following inequality. plot for imaginary parts. From the figure, as control gain increases
real 关 G SPR共 j ␻ ⫺␧ 兲兴 the actuator movement becomes faster but converges quickly to
its target value 共opposite the existing unbalance u兲. This fast
2 ␻ 2 共 ␨␻ n ⫺␧ 兲 movement is due to the Lyapunov function given in 共4兲 which has
⫽ penalty on the vibration with the weight ␥ as well as the total
m 关共 ␻ 2n ⫺ ␻ 2 ⫹␧ 2 ⫺2 ␨␻ n ␧ 兲 2 ⫹4 ␻ 2 共 ␨␻ n ⫺␧ 兲 2 兴 unbalance u⫹w.
These simulation studies show the developed method to be very
⭓0, ᭙␻ (23)
effective for the adaptive active balancing problem of the Jeffcott
The inequality 共23兲 can be satisfied if ␧ is chosen as follows. rotor. This technique can be extended to the single-plane balanc-
ing problem of a flexible rotor.
0⬍␧⭐ ␨␻ n (24)
Therefore, sufficiently small non-zero positive value of ␧ will
make G SPR(p) strictly positive real. Consequently, Eq. 共21兲 is the
same form as Eq. 共1兲 and we can directly apply the adaptation law
共7兲. Since the unkown gain u共unbalance兲 is constant, the following
control law guarantees, as discussed in the previous section, both
stability and convergence for any nonzero speed.
dw
⫽⫺ ␥ 共 j⍀ 兲 e ⫺ j ␪ r f , (25)
dt
The term e ⫺ j ␪ r f is nothing but a filtered output represented in
rotating coordinates. Figure 5 shows the control block diagram of
the active balancing system using the control law 共25兲.
3.3 Simulation. A set of simulations was performed for ac-
tive balancing of a Jeffcott rotor using the adaptation law shown
in 共25兲. The rotor parameters used in this simulation are mass:
m⫽1 共kg兲, spring constant: k⫽106 共N/m兲 and damping constant:
c⫽20 共Ns/m兲. Equivalently, the undamped system natural fre-
quency 共critical speed兲 is ␻ n ⫽9550 共rpm兲 and the damping ratio
is ␨ ⫽0.01. The speed profile of the rotor is shown in Fig. 6.
As can be seen in the figure, the rotor accelerates up to 12,000
rpm passing through the critical speed within 3 seconds, and then Fig. 7 Controlled vibration of the Jeffcott rotor with different
the speed varies at around 11,000 rpm. After 6 seconds, the speed gains

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 ⳵2
⳵z2
冋冉EI
⳵ 2 r 共 z,t 兲
⳵z2
冊册 ⫹b 共 z 兲
⳵ r 共 z,t 兲
⳵t
⫹m 共 z 兲
⳵ 2 r 共 z,t 兲
⳵t2

⳵2
⫽⫺ 关 兵 m 共 z 兲 a 共 z 兲 ⫹w 共 t 兲 ␦ 共 z⫺z 0 兲 其 e j ␪ (t) 兴 (26)
⳵t2
where b(z) is the damping coefficient of the rotor. By the stan-
dard modal analysis technique 共Darlow 关11兴, Meirovitch 关12兴兲, the
solution of Eq. 共26兲 can be represented by a linear combination of
modal responses ␩ k (t), i.e.,
⬁

r 共 z,t 兲 ⫽ 兺 ␾ 共 z 兲␩ 共 t 兲
i⫽1
k k (27)

where ␾ k (z) is the characteristic function 共mode shape兲 of kth

mode. The modal response is then written as,
d 2␩ k d␩k d2
⫹2 ␨ k ␻ k ⫹ ␻ 2k ␩ k ⫽⫺ 2 关 兵 u k ⫹ ␾ k 共 z 0 兲 w 其 e j ␪ (t) 兴
dt 2 dt dt
Fig. 8 Actuator movements of the Jeffcott rotor for different (28)
gains
where u k is the equvalent modal unbalance at plane z 0 and repre-
sented by the following equation.

4 Extension to Single Plane Balancing Problem of u k⫽ 冕 0

L
m 共 z 兲 a 共 z 兲 ␾ k 共 z 兲 dz (29)
Flexible Rotors
The modal equation 共28兲 is then written as the following transfer
4.1 Control Law. The developed adaptive active balancing function representation.
method can be extended to the collocated-plane balancing prob-
lem of any flexible rotor. The term ‘‘collocated-plane’’ here de- ⫺p 2
␩ k共 t 兲 ⫽ 共 u k⫹ ␾ k共 z 0 兲 w 兲 e j ␪ (30)
notes that the plane at which the vibration is measured and the p 2 ⫹2 ␨ k ␻ k p⫹ ␻ 2k
plane at which the active balancing actuator is attached coincide.
For a flexible rotor, there is infinite number of planes along the As a result, we can get the vibration at the plane z 0 by substituting
rotor. In practice, however, it is feasible to reduce the vibration of 共30兲 into 共27兲.
one plane of interest by attaching an active balancing actuator at ⬁
that plane. In this case, the transfer function from the balancing
actuator to the vibration can be easily modified to a strictly posi-
r 共 z 0 ,t 兲 ⫽ 兺 ␾ 共 z 兲␩ 共 t 兲
k⫽1
k 0 k

冉兺 冊
tive real transfer function.
⬁
Figure 9 describes a general flexible rotor. The frame 兵 X,Y ,Z 其 ⫺ ␾ k共 z 0 兲 p 2u k
represents the inertial frame that coincides with the center axis of ⫽ e j␪
k⫽1 p ⫹2 ␨ k ␻ k p⫹ ␻ 2k
2
the rotor. EI(z) and m(z) represent the stiffness and mass per unit
length of the rotor along the z axis respectively. The angle ␪ (t) is
the rotation angle of the rotor. The vector r(z,t)⫽r X (z,t)
⫹ jr Y (z,t) represents the displacement of rotational center of the
⫹冉兺 ⬁

k⫽1
⫺ ␾ 2k 共 z 0 兲 p 2
p 2 ⫹2 ␨ k ␻ k p⫹ ␻ 2k
冊 we j ␪ (31)
plane at z. The eccentricity of the center of mass is distributed
along the rotor axis and rotates with the rotor, and is represented The first term of the right-hand side of 共31兲 can be rewritten in the
as a(z)⫽a x (z)⫹ ja y (z). The counter unbalance vector is located following form by defining effective unbalance u eq (t).
in the plane at z 0 and is denoted as w(t)⫽w x (t)⫹ jw y (t). With
the above definitions and without considering any gyroscopic ef-
fects, the equation of motion for a flexible rotor can be written as
冉兺 ⬁

k⫽1
⫺ ␾ k共 z 0 兲 p 2u k
p 2 ⫹2 ␨ k ␻ k p⫹ ␻ 2k
冊 冉兺e ⫽ j␪
k⫽1
⬁
⫺ ␾ 2k 共 z 0 兲 p 2
p 2 ⫹2 ␨ k ␻ k p⫹ ␻ 2k
冊 u eq 共 t 兲 e j ␪

follows with appropriate boundary conditions 共Darlow 关11兴兲. (32)

冋 册
where
⬁
␾ 2k 共 z 0 兲 u k
兺 p ⫹2 ␨ ␻ p⫹ ␻
k⫽1
2
k k
2
k
u eq 共 t 兲 e j ␪ ⫽ ⬁ e j␪ (33)
␾ 2k 共 z 0 兲
兺 p ⫹2 ␨ ␻ p⫹ ␻
k⫽1
2
k k
2
k

The equivalent unbalance u eq (t) is, in general, not a constant but

a function of time. However, when the excitation frequency 共ro-
tation speed兲 is constant, the equivalent unbalance is also con-
stant. This means the equavalent unbalance varies relatively
slowly even if the rotor speed changes. Therefore, Eq. 共31兲 can be
rewritten as follows.

Fig. 9 General description of a flexible rotor

r 共 z 0 ,t 兲 ⫽ 冉兺k⫽1
⬁
⫺ ␾ 2k 共 z 0 兲 p 2
p 2 ⫹2 ␨ k ␻ k p⫹ ␻ 2k
冊 关 u eq 共 t 兲 ⫹w 共 t 兲兴 e j ␪ (34)

350 Õ Vol. 123, SEPTEMBER 2001 Transactions of the ASME

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 Fig. 10 Control block diagram of adaptive active balancing
system for flexible rotor

By using the output filter, as in the Jeffcott rotor case, we can get
the following equation.
共 p⫹␧ 兲
r f 共 t 兲⫽ r 共 z 0 ,t 兲 ⫽G SPR共 p 兲共 ⫺p 兲关 u eq 共 t 兲 ⫹w 共 t 兲兴 e j ␪
p
(35)
where
⬁ Fig. 12 Mode shapes and natural frequencies of the simula-
␾ 2k 共 z 0 兲共 p⫹␧ 兲
G SPR共 p 兲 :⫽ 兺 p ⫹2 ␨ ␻ p⫹ ␻
k⫽1
2
k k
2
k
(36)
tion model

The transfer function G SPR(p) defined in 共36兲 is obviously strictly

positive real. Since the coefficients ␾ 2k (z 0 ) have positive values,
each transfer function in the summation is strictly positive real.
Moreover, the sum of strictly positive real transfer function is also
strictly positive real. Therefore, the same control law 共25兲 can be
applied also in this case. Figure 10 shows the control block dia-
gram of a single plane active balancing system of a flexible rotor.
4.2 Simulation. A set of simulations has been performed
with the flexible rotor model given in Fig. 11. This model consists
of a cylinder shape rotor supported by massless bearings whose
stiffness is k⫽3⫻106 共N/m兲 at both ends. The length of the rotor
is 1 共m兲 and the diameter is 5 共cm兲. The material properties of the
rotor are E⫽100 共Gpa兲 and ␳ ⫽8⫻103 (kg/m3 ). The active bal-
ancer and the displacement sensors are attached at the plane 0.3 m
apart from the left end, and this plane will be called the balancing
plane. By modal analysis, the mode shapes and the undamped
natural frequencies can be obtained. Figure 12 shows the mode
shapes and the natural frequencies for the first five modes. The
damping is assumed to be proportional to stiffness distribution
and set to be 0.02 for every modes. The modal unbalances given
in 共29兲 are set to u 1 ⫽800⫹ j400, u 2 ⫽⫺1000⫹ j600, u 3 ⫽2000 Fig. 13 Controlled vibration of the flexible rotor with different
⫺ j2000, u 4 ⫽⫺3000⫹ j3000 and u 5 ⫽8000⫹ j4000 and the units control gains
are all 共g mm兲.
The rotating speed of the rotor is linearly accelerating from rest
up to 19200 rpm within 2 seconds. Therefore, the rotating speed
passes first three critical speeds of the rotor. The simulation has
been performed with the control law given in 共25兲 with output
filter parameter of ␧⫽0.001. Figure 13 shows the simulation re-
sults with various control gains. In the figure, 共a兲 is uncontrolled
vibration and 共b兲, 共c兲, and 共d兲 are controlled vibrations with dif-
ferent gains using ␥ ⫽0.1, ␥ ⫽1 and ␥ ⫽10, respectively. As can
be seen in the figure, the controlled vibration is reduced as the
control gain increases.
Figure 14 shows the actuator movement during control. In the
figure, it is seen that the actuator movement becomes faster for
large control gain. The reason is the same as in the Jeffcott rotor

Fig. 14 Actuator movements of the flexible rotor for different

Fig. 11 Simulation model „flexible rotor… gains

Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement, and Control SEPTEMBER 2001, Vol. 123 Õ 351

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 case. The control law tries to minimize vibration as well as the
total unbalance, and this effort requires fast movement of the bal-
ancing actuator. As a result, the control law 共25兲 is also available
for single plane balancing problem for flexible rotor.
5 Conclusions
The application of the feedforward gain adaptation technique to
active balancing of speed-varying rotors has been investigated.
The transient vibration as well as steady-state vibration of the
rotor system can be significantly reduced by applying the tech-
nique. In addition, the closed-loop system is shown to be asymp-
totically stable for constant unbalance. When the unbalance 共or
equivalent unbalance兲 varies with time, the counter unbalance
tries to track the opposite of the existing unbalance. The control
gain significantly affects the vibration level as well as the resultant
unbalance. A large gain aggressively reduces the vibration, how-
ever this requires fast movement of the balancing actuator. For
practical use, therefore, the gain should be tuned considering ac-
tuator speed and saturation. The stability of the closed loop sys-
tem is not affected by the magnitude of the gain.
This technique can be directly applied to any collocated-plane
balancing system 共actuation plane and the measurement plane are
the same兲 without prior knowledge of the systems dynamics or
unbalance. However, the technique can still be applied even if the
actuation plane and the measurement plane are different provided
that the transfer function from force to velocity is positive real in
the operating speed range. The positive realness of a transfer func-
tion can be checked by its Nyquist plot.
The gyroscopic effect was not considered because it makes the
rotor system linear time-varying, which makes it difficult to use
the positive realness concept. However, in some applications such
as spindle of machining center, the gyroscopic effect is of little
concern. The detailed stability analysis of the control law with
gyroscopic effect is left for the further study.
352 Õ Vol. 123, SEPTEMBER 2001
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Acknowledgment
This research has been performed as a part of ‘‘Real-Time Ac-
tive Balancing for High-Speed Machining Technology Develop-
ment Program’’ which is supported by the National Institute of
Standards and Technology共NIST兲.
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