Electronic Compensation System for Elimination or Reduction of Inter-Channel Interference in Noise Cancellation Systems

The invention relates to noise cancellation systems wherein an introduced noise is controlled and combined with the original system noise such that cancellation of both the original and introduced noises is substantially obtained.

Physical electromechanical structures particularly large rotating machines such as turbine generators and propulsion drive units generate unwanted noise or vibrations involving both rotational and translatory motion. Various methods and structures have been used in the past to reduce, isolate or eliminate such undesirable vibration signals.

It has been known, for example, to isolate vibrations by way of passive restraint systems such as resilient mounts, springs, the addition of large masses or dampening devices such as shock absorbers and the like. Such passive systems have varied from simple to complex but have normally added substantially to the weight and mass of a system.

Active noise suppression or cancellation systems have also been known and used in the prior art. Such systems are known to be relatively small and light with respect to passive noise suppression or cancellation systems but are normally far more complex than the passive systems. Such active systems, for example, normally operate by introducing a noise into the vibrating or noisy structure as an additional noise to that which exists in the system. Such introduced noise is carefully controlled so that the original and induced noises will combine in such a manner as to obtain cancellation through destructive interference. The process is performed by measuring noise or vibration signals from one or more sensing devices and in accordance with an analysis of the sensed noise adding the exactly opposite noise through a like number of actuation devices to obtain a net reduction or substantial cancellation of system noise. Such noise cancellation or nulling systems typically involve a plurality of separate channels wherein each channel includes a sensor and an actuator.

I have discovered, however, that a difficulty arises in such systems since there is often an interaction between the separate channels. That is to say, commercially available control systems for noise cancellation principally operate as single channel controllers wherein for each such channel there is a single input and a single output signal. Under many conditions the individual channels interact and result in an unstable condition in which excessively large and potentially damaging signals are produced by the system to be controlled. For example, where strong interaction between channels occurs, the noise required to silence one channel may interact with another channel and increase the noise of the latter channel. Such a condition can cause the control system to erroneously increase the induced or compensating noise in certain channels while minimizing the noise in others. Moreover, such unstable systems may operate repetitively in such a manner and thus result in higher and higher noise as well as system damage.

It is, therefore, the principle object of the present electronic compensation system to provide a means for electronically separating the channels and allowing the noise cancellation system to operate as intended.

It is a further object of the disclosed system to provide a means and method of electronically combining the signals from two or more interacting channels in such a manner as to create new channels which do not interact but which allow the existing control systems to operate effectively in applications and environments in which they were previously ineffective.

It is a still further object of the exemplary embodiments disclosed herein to provide a means and manner for combining the signals of the parallel channels of commercially available noise cancellation control systems that are not stable under certain conditions so that such channels are decoupled as to the modes of vibration of a structure in such manner as to maintain stability.

It is a still further object of the disclosed inventive subject matter to provide an electronic compensation system and method wherein signals from multiple input sensors are preprocessed for connection to the control system as well as being additionally processed prior to their connection with the noise injecting actuators. The compensation network includes active devices for combining two or more signals into a single signal wherein the single signal would be then processed by the control system to generate an anti-noise control channels is then passed through post-processing compensation steps before being fed to two or more anti-noise signal injecting actuators.

These and further objects and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent upon reference to the following specification, appended claims and drawings.

FIG. 1 is representative of a physical machine structure as well as illustrating the placement of vibration sensing devices and anti-noise signal injecting actuators;

FIG. 2 illustrates in block diagram form a typical prior art noise suppression or cancellation system utilizing commercially available elements in the parallel channels of the system;

FIG. 3 is an exemplary embodiment of my improved noise cancellation system illustrating the addition of the compensation system.,

FIG. 4 illustrates a sensor and actuator placement geometry for controlling six modes of machine structure motion;

FIG. 4A illustrates in a generalized manner the six modes of rigid body motion sensed and controlled; and

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of the improved system for controlling six modes of vibration.

As generally shown in FIG. 1, a noisy machine structure such as rotating equipment as found in turbine or motor generator sets exists wherein the sensors and actuators of a two-channel noise cancellation system are included. Although the block diagram of FIG. 1 does not illustrate the source of the noise or the manner of support of the structure (which may include passive noise suppression devices such as resilient mountings or the like), the structure is sufficient to illustrate a conventional two-channel noise cancellation system installation including representations of vibratory motion of a selected translatory direction as well as vibratory motion of a rotational nature about a principle axis of the body. The installation would typically include sensors placed in such a manner as to measure noise or vibration at points of interest on the structure such as vibrations producing a rotational motion about a selected axis and/or translational motion along a selected axis. Such sensors may be mechanical or electromechanical including piezoelectric accelerometers such as Wilcoxon Model Nos. 793 UF which are conventionally used for detecting vibrations and the like.

The actuators illustrated in FIG. 1 are typically electromagnetic shakers such as Wilcoxon F5's or F10's and are also conventionally placed at points of interest on the structure. Said points of interest are various locations selected in order to put or induce the anti-noise signals into the system and are usually near the respective sensors.

FIG. 2 illustrates a conventional plural channel noise cancellation system wherein the vibrations sensed by each sensor are transmitted to a channel controller such as a NCT Model 2000-8 for the purpose of applying a transfer function to the input signal wherein the transfer function would be such as to produce an anti-noise signal which when combined with the sensed vibrations or noise would substantially cancel the noise by way of destructive interference. As may be seen in FIG. 2, the anti-noise signal produced by the controller for each channel is thereafter amplified and applied to the machine structure by way of an electromagnetic actuator. As previously indicated, in such conventional systems, each channel operates in an independent manner and does not take into account the effect of one actuator on the other channel. When such signals are applied to structures such as rotary equipment or even simple structures such as rigid bodies, the system is often unstable due to the interaction between channels.

An exemplary embodiment of my improved system which includes an electronic compensation system is illustrated in FIG. 3. This exemplary embodiment includes a preprocessing section comprising differential amplifier A1 and summing amplifier A2 whereby the difference signal produced by amplifier A1 is a signal which is proportional to the rotational motion of the FIG. 1 structure about the selected rotation axis. This rotational motion signal is used as an input to the first channel of the controller which applies a transfer functional in the conventional manner.

Similarly, the summing amplifier A2 passes the sum of the signals developed by the sensors wherein the signal passed to the second channel of the controller is proportional to the translatory motion of the body, and thus, the modes of vibration from channel to channel are decoupled.

Subsequent to the application of the controller transfer function to the input sum and difference signals, the output of both the first or rotational channel and the second or translational channel are split and passed to sum and difference amplifiers A3 and A4 in the manner indicated in FIG. 3. As further indicated in the FIG. 3 post-processing section, one of the rotational channel outputs is inverted by a phase change before amplification by power amplifier 2. As such, the two power amplifiers drive the actuators in anti-phase which would produce only rotational motion or anti-noise signals. The second channel of control, however, is passed to both amplifier channels without inversion. Accordingly, both actuators would be driven in unison and would produce only translatory motion.

The motions or vibrations introduced by the actuators, of course, would be induced anti-noise signals or vibrations which by way of destructive interference cancel or substantially cancel the vibrations detected by the sensors. However, the pre- and post-processing sections would uncouple of the motions and, therefore, prevent the interaction between the prior art channels, and achieve stable operation under a wide variety of conditions.

Although the electronic compensation circuitry illustrated in FIG. 3 which has been provided so as to electronically separate the channels so that the vibrations or motions may be controlled in an uncoupled manner, has been illustrated using two channels, additional channels and vibrational modes may also be included in the system and be decoupled in a manner similar to that described above. For example, as generally illustrated in FIGS. 4 and 4A six modes of vibration or noise may be sensed by a set of seven accelerometers, four of which would be oriented to measure the vertical as well as pitch and roll motions. As further illustrated in FIGS. 4 and 4A, two of the sensors would be oriented laterally to measure translation in a transverse direction as well as yaw motion with the seventh accelerometer measuring axial motion. Both the sensors and actuators would be positioned in the locations indicated by inputs V1 through V7 in FIG. 4.

As illustrated in FIG. 5, the seven accelerometer sensors 10 may be connected to a multi-channel controller 12 through a compensation or preprocessing stage 11. The preprocessing stage may include six instrument amplifiers to buffer and invert the inputs wherein the output stages may be summed through the use of resistances in such a manner as to produce the following six uncoupled modes of vibration through the use of seven inputs.

where

Vv=Vertical Control Input

Vp=Pitch Control Input

Vr=Roll Control Input

Vt=Transverse Control Input

Vy=Yaw Control Input

Va=Axial Control Input

The uncoupled modes are each input to a channel controller for the application of transform functions and thereafter connected to compensation or a post-processing stage 13 which is similar to the preprocessing stage but is for the purpose of producing seven individual actuator outputs from the six controller outputs in accordance with the following:

where

V'v=Vertical Control Output

V'p=Pitch Control output

V'r=Roll Control Output

V't=Transverse Control Output

V'y=Yaw Control Output

V'a=Axial Control Output

Thus, it may be seen that the geometry addressed in the specification, although specifically illustrating two and six decoupled modes of vibration, is sufficient to indicate that it would be obvious to those skilled in the art that other geometries may be addressed using a similar technique. Such geometries may include greater and fewer channels of control than that which is illustrated in FIG. 5, for example and may include flexible body modes as well as rigid body modes.

As illustrated in the drawings, the operation of the system contemplates the use of symmetric bodies wherein the sensors and actuators are symmetrically placed, and, therefore, the relationship between channels is known and constant. The teachings of my invention, however, may also be applied to non-symmetric bodies by way of varying the gains in the summing and differential amplifiers. Additionally, the principles of this invention can be applied to bending or non-rigid as well as rigid bodies.

While the invention has been described in connection with what is presently considered to be the most practical and preferred embodiment, it is to be understood that the invention is not to be limited to the disclosed embodiment, but on the contrary, is intended to cover various modifications and equivalent arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the appended claims.