Investigation on vibration transmission control of a shafting system with active orthogonal support

A large proportion of the fluctuating propulsion forces transmit to the hull structure of an underwater vehicle through the stern support and cause structural vibration and sound radiation. To reduce the influence of the dynamic forces on the hull structure, a control method that uses an active orthogonal support is proposed. The active orthogonal support is arranged in the vertical and horizontal directions to connect the stern bearing and the hull structure and equipped with electromagnetic actuators to generate counter forces. A shaft–hull-coupled system is used to investigate the effectiveness of active orthogonal support, and numerical results indicate that the hull vibration and acoustic radiation can be significantly suppressed. The effectiveness of active orthogonal support was experimented as well. The experimental results have demonstrated that the active orthogonal support with local velocity feedback control is able to attenuate vibration transmission in the shaft–hull-coupled system.