Adaptive Feedforward Vibration Control of Helicopter Cabin Floor Driven by Piezoelectric Stack Actuators: Modeling, Simulation and Experiments

Active control of structural response is the most practical and effective approach to mitigate helicopter vibration and enhance ride quality. In this paper, adaptive feedforward vibration control is constructed for the helicopter cabin floor driven by piezoelectric stack actuators (PSAs). A scale helicopter airframe model, preserving the local geometric similarity of the cabin floor structure, is developed and optimized to capture the low‐order global dynamic characteristics of a reference airframe. The model of PSA is integrated into the attached beam element based on the conditions of force equilibrium and displacement compatibility, and adaptive feedforward control is implemented by the filtered‐x least mean square (Fx‐LMS) algorithm. Simulations and experimental studies under diverse excitations have been carried out. Results indicate that the adaptive PSA‐driven ride quality improvement system can effectively reduce the cabin floor vibration, and the responses under multidirection excitations can also be reduced by more than 90%. It is also observed that the responses at different control points exhibit inconsistent convergence due to the interference of modes under multidirection excitations.