ControlEng. Practice,Vol. 4, No. 12, pp.

1693-1700, 1996
Pergamon Copyright © 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd
Printed in Great Britain. All rights reserved
0967-0661/96 $15.00 + 0.00
PII:S0967-0661(96)00186-4

DECREASED VIBRATION CONTROL FOR CENTRIFUGES: A NEW

ADAPTIVE HYBRID CONTROL TECHNIQUE
Wen Yu*, Tianyou Chai* and Yi Yuan**
*Research Center of Automation, Northeastern University, Shenyang, 110006, P.R. China
**Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Northeastern University, Shenyang, 110006, P.R. China

(Received August 1995; in final form October 1996)

Abstract: This p a p e r presents a new control approach which can restrain the vibration of cen-
trifuges. In t h e new scheme, changed s u p p o r t stiffness and self-tuning feedforward PID control of
the decreased vibration force are effectively combined. Some advanced techniques, (such as adaptive
modification for u n s t a b l e vibration regions, two-level c o m p u t e r control, curve-tracking control), are
used to make the centrifuge s y s t e m r u n in a m i n i m u m - v i b r a t i o n state. A horizontal centrifugal ex-
p e r i m e n t is used to test the new control method. Experimental results show the effectiveness of the
p r o p o s e d scheme.

KeFword: self-tuning PID, feedforward compensation, changing s u p p o r t stiffness, decreased vibra-

tion force

1. I N T R O D U C T I O N can prevent serf-vibration. There are many

Manufacturing bias, filling material or a rotat-
ing frequency nearing the natural frequency may
cause centrifuge eccentricity, and this will cause
centrifuge self-vibration. The unstable vibration
becomes more and more serious when the rotating
frequency is increased, especially for large rotatory
machines. Almost all centrifuges have some kind
of eccentricity, and self-vibration during starting
and stopping is inevitable, so vibration control is
very i m p o r t a n t for the stable operation of rotatory
machines. However, as most of the studies on the
vibration of r o t a t o r y machines were based on an
analysis of the unstable vibration characteristics of
the centrifuge, they usually only change the op-
erating mode to prevent vibration. These control
techniques are passive.
ways of changing the natural frequency. A typ-
ical and effective method is to change the sup-
port stiffness of the rotor bearing (Palazzolo
and Jagannathan, 1993).
2. Use of active control of the decreased vibration
(Viderman and Porat, 1987). The centrifuge's
vibration can be decreased by exerting a force
on the rotors.
As it is very difficult to describe the vibration of a
centrifuge, and there are currently no effective con-
trol methods or actuators, active control for the vi-
bration of centrifuges is still at the level of theoret-
ical preparation and simulation experiments (Tzou
and Gade, 1988). As vibration control is much
more difficult than industrial process control, an
effective and realizable controller needs to be de-
signed for rotatory machines.

Recent a t t e m p t s to design active controllers for
centrifuges have made great progress in two direc-
tions:
1. Changing the natural frequency of the cen-
trifuge's rotor. Moving the natural frequency
Simple and effective experimental equipment for
changing the support stiffness has been made by
the authors of this paper. Based on this device a
new control approach is proposed here, which uses
many advanced and effective techniques, such as

1693
1694 Wen Yu et al.

hybrid decreased vibration control, two-level com-
puter control, self-tuning P I D control, feedforward
compensation, prediction of the unstable vibration
region, and curve-tracking control. Compared with
other decreased vibration controllers, this method
has the following properties:
lem, and difficult to illustrate. From a simpli-
fied dynamic model of the centrifuge, which uses
three Newton equations, three Euler equations, six
derivation equations and four Navior-Stakes equa-
tions (Wolf, 1968), a liquid-solid coupling vibration
equation is given as follows (Yuan, 1995):

• The control algorithm is simple, and the actu-

ator is realizable and rapid.
• The demands for observation of the running
J ail a12 .q_

state are low.

• The controller is adaptable to changes in the
parameters of the centrifuge.
[ a21

+
[oc21
0

~
b22

0
(1)

• It is suitable for real-time control, and not only

where all : --2C
eliminates self-vibration, but also restrains vi-
bration in the stable operation mode. = 1- + (I +
• Eccentricity is compensated for by feedforward
control. a21 = i + 2D

In order to evaluate the adaptive hybrid control, bll = 25[-~ - 1

a horizontal centrifugal experiment is used to test
several control methods. Experimental results
show that the approach presented in this paper is
b21 = 2 c - 2ill(1 - 2#)
more effective t h a n the others.

b22 = 4#
This paper is organized as follows. The dynamic
model of the centrifuge, support stiffness control c12 = -f12(1 - l / f 2 ) ( 1 + 2/~}
and the decreased vibration force control model
are introduced in Section 2. In Section 3, the con- c2, = k(t)- 2iflc - (I + 2/~)f}2
trol system structure and control algorithms are
1
discussed. An experimental evaluation is given in P = ~--~o
Section 4. Section 5 concludes the paper.
u : u x -- i U y

q = ~(sin e - i c o s e)
2. P L A N T D E S C R I P T I O N
i= j-:-~, f = ~b , f l -- o,o
2.1. Dynamic model of the centrifuge system

A typical horizontal centrifuge rotor is shown in y is the displacement of the centrifuge vibration
Fig. 1
fl is an intermediate variable
d e c r e a s e d v i b r a t i o n force
filled l i q u i d
c is a dumped coefficient,
motor _N~__ ~ e n t r a n c e of
.................. material
# is the density of filled liquid

1 - f is the filling rate

rotor bearing
rotor a is the radius of the rotor

a - b is the width of the filled liquid (see Fig.l)

Fig. 1. The structure of horizontal centrifuges
The vibration problem of a centrifuge belongs to
the dynamic category of a rigid body filled with
.liquid. It is a complex liquid-solid coupling prob-
w is the critical rotation speed
u~, uy are projections of the decreased vibration
force in the horizontal and vertical directions
 Decreased Vibration Control for Centrifuges 1695

is the angular displacement of the rotor 2.2. Support stiffness control

k(t) is the support stiffness Support stiffness is controlled by the oil pressure,
and is regulated by the control voltage of the oil
e is the eccentricity distance valve. Because the oil pressure changes the stiff-
ness of the rubber spring in the rotor bearing, the
w0 is the natural frequency
support stiffness of the rotor bearing is changed. It
rn is the mass. is very difficult to express this nonlinear process by
means of equationsi especially the relation between
In order to analyze unstable vibration, let the rubber spring and the support stiffness of the
rotor bearing. An experiment has been designed
y = (Xo - iyo)e -ivt (2)
to test this relation, where the input is the control
where Xo, Yo are constants, and v is the angle speed voltage q(t) of the oil valve, and the output is the
of rotor. From the analysis of Yuan (1995), the natural vibration frequency of the centrifuge. The
rotation of a centrifuge can also be described as: support stiffness k(t) is calculated from the natu-
ral Vibration frequency. The experimental result is
shown in Fig.3.

(r ÷ / ~ ) v 4 + 2 [2icr + 12(r - 1)1 v3+ k(t) ,xlo6

[12 (r - 5 - + 2ica(r - 2) - r]
(3)
+212 [1 - 3ic12 - 2122(p + 1)] v 2.3
support j _ _
W122 [1 - 2ic12 - 122(1 +/~)] ----0 2.2-

where r = ~_-~y. If r,/z, 12 are constants, v deter-

mines the state of the rotor. When the imaginary
2.1"

2.0-
siffness

Y
1.9"
components of v are positive, t ~ m ly(t)l = co and
this is defined as unstable vibration. Let 1 - f J [~ I I ' ~ voltage(V}
0.6 0,8 1.0 1.2 1.4 1.6
and fl be variable. Eq.3 can then be solved us-
ing Newton-Raphson methods (Burden and Faired,
1985). The relation between unstable y(t) and Fig. 3. Relation between the support stiffness and the
1 - f, and 12 is shown in Fig.2. oil valve

The natural frequency of the centrifuge is changed

I-1 by the support stiffness, so 12 changes, followed by
regulation of the oil valve. This can move the un-
1.0 stable operating point A to stable points B or C in
0.8 Fig.2. However unsuitable control can also change
0.6 C B or C to A, so the determination of the unstable
region is very important for vibration control.
o.4~
0.2-
iF 2.3. Controlled model of decreased vibration force
I I I I I [ I I b f]
1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2.0

Using the Laplace transformation on Eq.1 and

eliminating fl, the relation between u and y is
Fig. 2. Unstable vibration region
y{s) = kp
go + g l s + g2s 2 + g3s 3 u(s) (4)

where gcr. . . . . b1~c21, g l : c21a12 + b12b21, g2 =

The shaded part in the figure is the unstable zone,
where the whirl frequency is less than the rotation
frequency. This is also called "sub-resonance vibra-
tion" .
a12b21azl -b22b11, g3 = a12a~l-b22a11, kp : pb22.
Support stiffness k(t) , i.e. c21, corresponds with
the parameters go and gl of system (4). If the
1696 Wen Yu et al.

sample period of the experiment is 500m8 and a as a supervisor and for calculation of the optimum.
zero-order-holder is used, the transfer function of The control periods are:
the impulse response of Eq.4 is

e(z_l)_ B(z -1) _ y(t)

A(z u(t)" ~ti~solacement? f o r c e ¢ ~ ~ ~
|ff.etection II control [ ~ ](':'-':'.'" [Icontroll

The influence of eccentricity e(t), which is the last

1. curve-tracking of changing stiffness ~ |
term on the right-hand side of Eq.1, can be cal- ] 12. closed-loop velocity control ] ]
culated from the vibration displacement, so eccen- | 13. decrease vibration force output ~ /
4. data processing ~ [
tricity is regarded as a measurable bounded distur-
|
bance, and can be compensated for by feedforward
Optimum Computer(IBM-~86)
control. Regardless of the system noise, the dis- I I 1. calculation of the unstable vibration region
~2. management of the changing stiffness tracking curv(
crete form of the decreased vibration force control |3. decreased vibration force adaptive control
[4. man-machine interface
model is

A(z-Xjy(t) = B ( z - 1 ) u ( t - 1) + qe(t). (5)

Fig. 4. The structure of the centrifuge's computer con-
trol system

3. DESIGN OF T H E D E C R E A S E D
• Decreased vibration force: 500ms
VIBRATION CONTROLLER
• Changing support stiffness:80ms
Some special techniques in designing the structure • Velocity control: lOOms
of the control system are used in order to satisfy A standard PID algorithm is used to control the
the following requirements: motor's velocity. The block diagram of the control
• The unstable vibration region must be crossed system is shown in Fig.5.
rapidly during starting and stopping
• If a change in the operating conditions causes
the system to enter the unstable region, it
should move rapidly into the stable region.
• The amplitude of the vibration must be mini- Velocity Control Loop
mized in the stable operating mode.

3.1. The structure of the control system

The length of the experimental device is 0.4m, the Changing Stiffness Control Loop
inner radius is 0.044m, the weight is 9.7kg, the eccentricity
filled liquid is NaC1 with a density of 1.2g/ml, the feedftrward I
filling rate is 1 - f = 0.6, f = b_ (see Fig.l) ] cont]rolGy J
~self-- tu n i n g ~ ~ ~ - ~ _ ~
and without any control the natural frequency is
25.6Hz.
[ II ..... ~J Idispla . . . . . t~ i
[ ~ ..... t . . . . t , o n ~ se . . . . ["
In order to satisfy two conflicting demands (com-
Decreased Vibration Force Control Loop
plex calculations and rapid response), a two-level
computer controlled system is used as shown in
Fig.4. Each subsystem is divided into several func- Fig. 5. Block diagram of the control system
tional modules, and the two subsystems are con-
nected by means of serial communication. Each The velocity sensor is a Hull component. The two
module is characterized by an operating mode, an displacement sensors are mounted with horizontal
operating strategy and an operator. The single- and vertical orientations, as shown in Fig.6. Ec-
chip controller is used for rapid response and con- centricity detection is achieved using an indirect
trol output, while the "optimum computer" is used method. It is calculated from the two displacement
 Decreased Vibration Control for Centrifuges
values.
/ ~ computer]
Fig. 6. Vibration displacement detection
3.2. Prediction of unstable vibration
The unstable vibration region is judged from the
amplitude of vibration and resonance analysis cre-
ated by the F F T board. The centrifuges may re-
enter the unstable region when changed stiffness
or a decreased vibration force are used, so it is
very important to predict whether a new operat-
ing mode will lie in an unstable region. As Eq.3
and Fig.2 can only give approximate calculation
under the ideal conditions, they are difficult to use
directly. Eq.2 and Eq.3 can also be written as an
experimental equation:
y(t) = kl(i ) × f ( r , n , # , c , v , e , u )
where f(.) is determined off-line by experimental
data, and kl(i ) is the ith modification coefficient,
modified on-line by a heuristic algorithm.
The unstable region can be defined as ly(t)] >_ M
where M is the upper limit of the vibration ampli-
tude in the stable region. According to the calcu-
lated value y' = k! × f(-) and the detected vibration
displacement y(t), k! is modified adaptively.
There are several parameter-estimation algorithms
that can be used (Goodwin and Sin, 1987), but
they often involve some assumptions such as strict
passivity real (SPR} and persistent excitation
(BE}. In this paper only a scalar kl(i } needs to
be estimated, not a parameter vector, so a modified
stochastic gradient algorithm is used. This method
is similar to that of SIEMENS Ltd. (1987}. The
following adaptive algorithm is used to modify k I
y{0
k (i + 1) = + va[y-; - (7)
where Ira is the theoretical approach gain, k I (0) =
1. Let
vo --- ro(1 - ¢ , a }
1697
3.5
,iiiiiiiii
...... : ' ~
i ¸¸
3
25
'.~, .... i ............. • i
o.s .........
i
i
i
~ .............
:
.............
heuristic t i m e t
Fig. 7. The experimental result of modification coeffi-
cient k(t)
where Vi = (1/ Y × a / V ~ ) , a = ~-&T[Ey 2 -
1
~ Yi, V/is the degree of accuracy,
Fi is a weighting term of the degree of accuracy,
and Fa is the approach gain. Fa and F/ are con-
stants, determined experimentally.
In the experiment, n = 8. The model is modified
after n values are detected. The experimental re-
sult of this algorithm are shown in Fig.7. When
i = 20 and i = 45, the operating mode is changed.
(6)
This shows that the heuristic algorithm has good
convergence properties. It can predict the unstable
vibration effectively.
3.3. Curve-tracking control of changing stiffness
A method of changing the stiffness is used to move
the centrifuge rapidly into the stable region. Be-
cause neither the relationship between the oil valve
and the stiffness, nor that between the stiffness and
the stable region can be known, Fig.2 shows that
different 1 - f and fl correspond to different unsta-
ble regions. So the control voltage of the oil valve
will need to have different velocity and accelera-
tion respectively to make the centrifuge leave the
unstable vibration region. From the experimental
results and Fig.2, the different curves for the dif-
ferent operating modes are given in Fig.8.
These curves can be selected by the "optimum com-
puter", or by an operator in a different operating
mode. The selected curve is sent to the single-chip
controller by serial communication, and the chang-
hag stiffness control follows this curve directly.
Before the control voltage is added to the valve,
{8} the unstable region prediction module is used to
1698 Wen Yu et al.

conditiov curve condition curve A feedforward PID controller (see Fig.5) is:
~voltage
voltage
f<l 7 C ~ a f<0.4
~,
~u(t) = klan(t) + h~(t)+
(11)
f>0.8 .f > 0.1 ka[A~(t) - A~(t - 1)] + ale(t )
q~
where ~(t) = - y ( t ) , A~(t) : ~ ( t ) - ~ ( t - 1),
voltage ~, voltage
f<0.8 G / ( z -1) = - A i E ( z -1) + S ( z - 1 ) ] , kp : - ) k ( g I --}-
sxpe~ence /
f>0.4 / fl 292), h = A(g0 + gl + g2), kd = Ag2.
The closed-loop equation is:

(QA~ + P B , ) y ( t ) = (qQ + BrS)e(t)

Fig. 8. Tracking curve of changing stiffness (12)
+(Q + B r E ) M ( t ) .

decide if q(t) makes y(t) unstable, k(t) is deter-
mined by the control voltage from Fig.3, and y(t)
is calculated from Eq.6. If y(t) is unstable, the con-
trol output is halted and a message is sent to the
optimum computer. The optimum computer will
modify the tracking curve.
S is a feedforward weighting term, and a proper
choice of S can eliminate the influence of e(t). To
eliminate the steady-state error caused by e(t), let
S=qE(1). (13)
An indirect robust self-tuning algorithm is adopted.
Eq.5 can be written as

3.4. Self-tuning PID feedforward control of de- y(t) : X ( t - 1)T0 + M(t). (14)
creased vibration force
The normalization signal n(t) is used to ensure a
bound on the unmodeled dynamic M(t)
If the operating mode is in a stable region, the de-
creased vibration force adaptive control module is o<,<,_~{x,(,),c},
.(t) ---- m a x c > 0.
used. As stiffness and eccentricity often change, the Xt
Let X " ( t ) = x_~, e"(t) = y"(t) - X~(t)O~(t - 1),
parameters of the system in Eq.5 will be changed.
In order to design a PID structure controller, the M " ( t ) = M___~. Assume that the upper bound of
model for adaptive control is selected as a second- M " ( t ) is defined as V,,ax > {Mn(t){. Use the least-
order model; Eq.5 is written as squares algorithm with relative dead zone

A~(z-1)y(t) = B ~ ( z - 1 ) u ( u - 1)+ Or(t) = Or(t - 1) + K(t)en(t) (15)

M ( t ) + qe(t)
(9)
where Ar(z -1) = 1 + alz -1 + a2z -2, Br(z -1) =
K(t) = a ( t ) P ( t - 2)X~"(t - 1)
bo + blz - 1 , A m = A - A r , B m = B - B~, M(t) = (16)
[1+ X n ( t - 1 ) P ( t - 2 ) X n ( t - 1)] -1
- A , ~ y ( t ) + B m u ( t - 1) is the unmodeled dynamics.

Decreased vibration control is a regulation prob- P(t- I) P(t- 2)

--

lem, so let the reference input w(t) = 0. The aim (17)

-g(Ox~(t- 1)P(t- 2)
of the self-tuning controller is that of minimizing

where
J = [Py(* + 1) + Qu(t) + se(t)l 2 o I e'(t) [~_ /~Vmax
(x = e,~(t)
where P, Q, S are weighting terms. Along the same e~(t)+aVm.x Era(t ) < __f~Vma x

hnes as that of Yu and Chai (1994), the PID control = [p + 1/(1 - ~)11/~ ; > 0
law can be obtained from:
From Eq.14-Eq.17 the lower model ,4r, Br are es-
Q(z -1) : A-1(1 - z -1) - EBr timated, and u(t) is calculated from Eq.10 and
P = EAr + z - l G (lO) Eq.11. The stability and convergency can be seen
G :- gO -t- yl Z - 1 + g2z - 2 . in the paper by Yu and ChM (1994).
 Decreased Vibration Control for Centrifuges 1699

4. E X P E R I M E N T A L EVALUATION

The experimental equipment is shown in Fig.4.

The centrifuge is accelerated to 2300r/rain. T w o 4 o (.0 (11 z )

kinds of graph will be used: 3D graph of vibration

displacement relatedto COo and CO, and 2D graph of
al
the time history of vibration displacement. In the
3D graph, the z orientation is the vibration dis-
placement y(t), the z orientation is the rotation ¢~

frequency CO, and the 9 orientation is the natural --~---

, •
~ : ' ; -: :, ,' , 6
4

frequency co0. In the 2D graph, the z orientation

is time t, and the ~ orientation is the vibration dis-
placement y(t).
y (ram)

Fig.9 shows the results without any active control.

The sub-resonance vibration appears at 63.72- dl. 1~

73.17Hz. This is the unstable vibration region. a~,oO

Using only changing stiffness control (Palaszolo -4.1~

and Jagannathan, 19931, the 3D graph during the -0.~6 i . .

0.625 1.250 1.615 2.50O ,LI25 3,750 4.37S 5.0DQ

starting period and the time history of the dis-
t (minute)

placement at operating rotation speed are shown

in Fig.10. The sub-resonance vibration almost dis- Fig. 9.3D graph and time history of displacement with-
appears, but the first-order frequency vibration is out any control
very large, and the displacement in the operating
rotation speed decreases to half that of Fig.9.

Using changing stiffness control during the start-

ing period, and self-tuning feedforward PID con-
'~0 {I/z)
trol at operating rotation speed, the 3D graph and d

:-~2--_---
the time history of the displacement are shown &

~ ~ ~-;,- -. / /:~
in Fig.11. The sub-resonance vibration disap-
pears and the first-order frequency vibration is
very small. The displacement at operating rota-
• • /,"' / " ," 14
tion speed is smaller than in Fig.10.

The results above demonstrate that the control

(J.,J ao.o 40.o ¢,o.o oo.o mo.o CO ( l l z )
scheme described in this paper is effective.

y (---)
5. C O N C L U S I O N H,a~

4.L~
For engineering mechanisms, decreased vibration
control is very significant, especially for high-speed
rotation equipment. This paper gives a new vi-
bration control method. The main contribution
-u.a6
of the paper is that a new hybrid active control o ;.12s '~.~o ~75 ~.500 ~.~2~ ;;,so 7.67G 9
! (mjntlte)
scheme is proposed. As changing stiffness and de-
creased vibration force are combined, and some ad-
vanced techniques are effectively used, the vibra-
Fig. I0. Controlled with changing stiffness
tion of centrifuges can be decreased using a self-
tuning PID. Theoretical analysis and experimental
results demonstrate that this scheme is effective.
1700 Wen Yu et al.

( O 0 ( l ! z)
7. REFERENCES

Burden, R.L. and J.D. Faired {1985), Numeri-

cal Analysis (third edition), Prindle, Webwe &
Schmidt Publishers
Goodwin, G.C. and K.S. Sin (1984), Adaptive Fil-
tering Prediction and Control, Englewood Cliffs
Palazzolo, A.B. and S. Jagannathan (1993}, Hybrid
o o ~,.u ,*o.o 60.0 um,n mo.o (d ('llz) Active Control of Rotor bearing Systems Using
Piezoelectric Actuators,Journal of Vibration and
y (mm) Acoustics, V o l . l l 5 , 111-119
n .2a I
SIEMENS Ltd. (1990), Process Control in Cold
Rolling Mills with Mathematical Models, Shang-
hai Baoshan Iron and Steel Group Tech. Rep.
Tzou, H.S. and M. Gade (1988}, Active Vibration
-4. lo
Isolation by Polymeric Piezoelectric with Vari-
-e,2~
o
....
1.150 3.~.90 5.Z50 t.I)Otl 8.150 1 tl.SgO 12.25
able Feedback Gains, AIAA Journal, Vol.26,
t (minute)
1014-1017
Viderman, Z. and I. Porat {1987), An Optimal
Fig. 11. Controlled with changing stiffness and de- Control Method for Passage of a Flexible Rotor
creased vibration force Through Resonances, Journal of Dynamic Sys-
tems, Measurement and Control, Vol.109, 216-
223
Wolf, J.A. (1968), Whirl Dynamics of a Rotor Par-
tially Filled with Liquid,Journal of Applied Me-
6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT chanics, Vol.35, 166-175
This work has been supported by the Natural Sci- Yuan, Y. (1995), Study on Centrifuges Rotor Vi-
ence Key Foundation of China. bration, Ph.D. thesis, Northeastern University
Yu, W. and T.Y. Chai (1994), Self-tuning Feed-
The authors wish to thank all the reviewers for forward PID Controller, Proc. 33th IEEE Conf.
their helpful comments and suggestions. Decision and Control, USA