Active Balancing for Lift Fan Drive Shaft

This Phase I SBIR Project will develop an Advanced Unbalance Control (AUC) system based on active magnetic bearing (AMB) technology and advanced feedforward control algorithms. The AUC system will offer at least an order of magnitude increase in bothresponse speed and unbalance response reduction as compared to the best available mechanical unbalance cancellation methods. This will be accomplished by developing several key technologies: 1) high specific force AMB actuators; 2) advanced feed-forwardcontrollers; and 3) an optimization procedure to ensure maximum effectiveness of the system in this and other applications.The AUC system will include both the method and hardware for reducing/eliminating unbalance response in many applications. This will be accomplished by using AMB technology in parallel with the current support bearings on the transmission shaft. The AMBwill be utilized only as an actuator to apply rotating forces to the shaft for active unbalance force cancellation. The current configuration of support bearings remains the same.A complete test rig design, including design and analysis of the new actuators, and rotordynamics analysis, will be completed in Phase I. The Phase I Option will involve construction and testing of a laboratory scaled version of the F-35 lift fan driveshaft.