Aj. Sorensen et O. Egeland, RIDE CONTROL OF SURFACE EFFECT SHIPS USING DISTRIBUTED CONTROL, Modeling, identification and control, 15(2), 1994, pp. 65-79
A ride control system for active damping of heave and pitch accelerati
ons of Surface Effect Ships (SES) is presented. It is demonstrated tha
t distributed effects that are due to a spatially varying pressure in
the air cushion result in significant vertical vibrations in low and m
oderate sea states. In order to achieve a high quality human comfort a
nd crew workability it is necessary to reduce these vibrations using a
control system which accounts for distributed effects due to spatial
pressure variations in the air cushion. A mathematical model of the pr
ocess is presented, and collocated sensor and actuator pairs are used.
The process stability is ensured using a controller with appropriate
passivity properties. Sensor and actuator location is also discussed.
The performance of the ride control system is shown by power spectra o
f the vertical accelerations obtained from full scale experiments with
a 35 m SES.