Quasi-active suspension design using magnetorheological dampers

Quasi-active damping is a method of coupled mechanical and control system design using multiple semi-active dampers. By designing the systems such that the desired control force may always be achieved using a combination of the dampers, quasi-active damping seeks to approach levels of vibration isolation achievable through active damping, whilst retaining the desirable attributes of semi-active systems. In this article a design is proposed for a quasi-active, base-isolating suspension system.Control laws are firstly defined in a generalised form, where semi-active dampers are considered as idealised variable viscous dampers. This system is used to demonstrate in detail the principles of quasi-active damping, in particular the necessary interaction between mechanical and control systems. It is shown how such a system can produce a tunable, quasi-active region in the frequency response of very low displacement transmissibility.Quasi-active control laws are then proposed which are specific for use with magnetorheological dampers. These are validated in simulation using a realistic model of the damper dynamics, again producing a quasi-active region in the frequency response. Finally, the robustness of the magnetorheological, quasi-active suspension system is demonstrated.     

Structural damage detection of controlled building structures using frequency response functions

If a building structure requires both a vibration control system and a health monitoring system, the integration of the two systems will be cost-effective and beneficial. One of the key problems of this integrated system is how to use control devices to enhance system identification and damage detection. This paper presents a new method for system identification and damage detection of controlled building structures equipped with semi-active friction dampers through model updating based on frequency response functions. The two states of the building are first created by adding a known stiffness using semi-active friction dampers. A scheme based on the frequency response functions of the two states of the building is then presented to identify stiffness parameters of structural members in consideration of structural connectivity and transformation information. By applying the proposed model updating scheme to the damaged building, a damage detection scheme is proposed based on the identified stiffness parameters of structural members of both the original and damaged buildings. The feasibility of the proposed schemes is finally demonstrated through a detailed numerical investigation in terms of an example building, in which the effects of measurement noise and excitation conditions are discussed. The numerical results clearly show that the proposed method can locate and quantify damage satisfactorily even though measurement noise is taken into consideration.     

A STOCHASTIC OPTIMAL SEMI-ACTIVE CONTROL STRATEGY FOR ER/MR DAMPERS

A stochastic optimal semi-active control strategy for randomly excited systems using electrorheological/magnetorheological (ER/MR) dampers is proposed. A system excited by random loading and controlled by using ER/MR dampers is modelled as a controlled, stochastically excited and dissipated Hamiltonian system with n degrees of freedom. The control forces produced by ER/MR dampers are split into a passive part and an active part. The passive control force is further split into a conservative part and a dissipative part, which are combined with the conservative force and dissipative force of the uncontrolled system, respectively, to form a new Hamiltonian and an overall passive dissipative force. The stochastic averaging method for quasi-Hamiltonian systems is applied to the modified system to obtain partially completed averaged Itô stochastic differential equations. Then, the stochastic dynamical programming principle is applied to the partially averaged Itô equations to establish a dynamical programming equation. The optimal control law is obtained from minimizing the dynamical programming equation subject to the constraints of ER/MR damping forces, and the fully completed averaged Itô equations are obtained from the partially completed averaged Itô equations by replacing the control forces with the optimal control forces and by averaging the terms involving the control forces. Finally, the response of semi-actively controlled system is obtained from solving the final dynamical programming equation and the Fokker-Planck-Kolmogorov equation associated with the fully completed averaged Itô equations of the system. Two examples are given to illustrate the application and effectiveness of the proposed stochastic optimal semi-active control strategy.     

Reduction of seismic forces on existing buildings with newly constructed additional stories including friction layer and dampers

This paper presents a new approach to improve seismic readiness of story-increased buildings by utilizing passive structure control techniques. This approach uses passive structural control techniques such as sliding-friction layer and dampers. The sliding-friction layer is sandwiched between the bottom surface of the increased structure and the rooftop of the original building. The energy dissipation dampers are installed between the supporting outer frame for the increased-structure and each floor of the original buildings. To assist dynamic analysis and control design, a simplified structural model of the building system is derived. To increase computational accuracy and to reduce computation time, a novel Coulomb friction representation is incorporated into the non-linear dynamic analysis. The proposed method is applied to a story-increased building and numerical results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.     

Novel schemes for inserting seismic dampers in shear-type systems based upon the mass proportional component of the Rayleigh damping matrix

This paper presents the results of an extensive study carried out to investigate the applicability of a novel scheme for inserting added viscous dampers in shear-type systems. The findings, even though developed with specific reference to civil building structures, provide useful insight also for the effective addition of viscous dampers in mechanical dynamic systems (of similar characteristics) when excited at the base.The novel scheme proposed (referred to as the MPD system) is based upon the mass proportional component of the Rayleigh damping matrix (MPD matrix) and is characterised by a peculiar damper placement which sees the dampers placed so that they connect each mass to a fixed point.Firstly, the paper briefly recalls (a) the physical principles and (b) selected results of numerical investigations which show that the MPD system is characterised by superior dissipative properties.Secondly, the paper investigates the implementation of the MPD system in civil building structures. Two solutions are envisaged herein: direct implementation (through the use of long buckling-resistant dampers which connect each storey to the ground) and indirect implementation (by placing common dampers between the structure and a very stiff lateral-resisting element adjacent or internal to the structure). The first solution leads to the implementation in the structure of an exact MPD matrix, if damper sizing is chosen appropriately. The second solution (simpler than the first one to implement in building structures) leads to an exact MPD matrix, if, in addition to appropriate damper sizing, the lateral-resisting element is infinitely stiff. As far as the direct implementation is concerned, this paper shows how long buckling-resistant braces are available for structural systems up to three storey high. As far as the indirect implementation is concerned, this paper shows (through extensive numerical parametric investigations) how this solution is capable of providing damping effects which are similar to those offered by the direct implementation, even for lateral-resisting elements characterised by finite lateral stiffness. The results obtained also provide insight for the optimal insertion of viscous dampers in coupled mechanical dynamic systems.     

Semi-active control of 1D continuum vibrations under a travelling load

The paper presents a method for computing the response of a 1D elastic continuum supported by a set of semi-active viscous dampers and induced by a load travelling over it. The magnitude of the moving force has been assumed to be constant by neglect of the inertia forces. Full analytical solution is based on the power series method and is given in an arbitrary time interval. The time-marching scheme allows us to continue a solution in successive layers with initial conditions taken from the end of previous stages. The semi-active open loop control strategy is proposed. Shapes of damping functions are defined as a form of piecewise constant function. The control strategy is suboptimal and it outperforms the passive case. Numerical results are presented for the cases of a string and a Bernoulli-Euler beam.     

Semi-active on–off damping control of a dynamic vibration absorber using Coriolis force

A passive dynamic vibration absorber (DVA) moving along a pendulum can cause the nonlinear Coriolis damping to reduce the pendulum swing. This paper proposes a simple semi-active on–off damping controller to improve the passive Coriolis DVA. The aim of the on–off damping control is to amplify the DVA resonance motion to increase the energy dissipated. Moreover, the paper finds the analytical solution of the harmonic vibration of semi-active controlled system. The accuracy of the analytical formulas and the superior performance of the semi-active DVA are verified by numerical simulations.     

Semi-active damping control of suspension systems for specified operational response mode

A practical and effective semi-active on-off damping control law using semi-active actuators is developed for vibration attenuation of a natural, multi-degree-of-freedom suspension system, when its operational response mode is specified. It does not need the accurate system parameters and semi-active actuator dynamics. It reduces the total vibratory energy of the system including the work done by external disturbances and the maximum energy dissipation direction of the semi-active actuator is tuned to the operational response mode of the structure. The effectiveness of the control law using a single semi-active linear mount is illustrated with a three-degree-of-freedom excavator cabin suspension model.     

Optimum connecting dampers to reduce the seismic responses of parallel structures

Parameters of connecting dampers between two adjacent structures and twin-tower structure with large podium are optimized through theoretical analysis. The connecting visco-elastic damper (VED) is represented by the Kelvin model and the connecting viscous fluid damper (VFD) is represented by the Maxwell model. Two optimization criteria are selected to minimize the vibration energy of the primary structure and to minimize the vibration energy of both structures. Two representative numerical examples of adjacent structures and one three-dimensional finite element model of a twin-tower with podium structure are used to verify the correctness of the theoretical approach. On the one hand, by means of theoretical analysis, the first natural circular frequencies and total mass of the two structures can be taken as parameters in the general formula to get the optimal parameters of the coupling dampers. On the other hand, using the Kanai-Tajimi filtered white-noise ground motion model and several actual earthquake records, the appropriate parameters of two types of linking dampers are obtained through extensive parametric studies. By comparison, it can be found that the results of parametric studies are consistent with the results of theoretical studies for the two types of dampers under the two optimization criteria. The effectiveness of VED and VFD is investigated in terms of the seismic response reduction of the neighboring structures. The numerical results demonstrate that the seismic response and vibration energy of parallel structures are mitigated significantly. The performances of VED and VFD are comparable to one another. The explicit formula of VED and VFD can help engineers in application of coupled structure control strategies.     

Extended Kalman filter for modal identification of structures equipped with a pendulum tuned mass damper

Pendulum tuned mass dampers (PTMDs) have been employed in several full-scale applications to attenuate excessive structural motions, which are mostly due to wind. Conducting periodic condition assessments of the devices to ascertain their health is necessary to ensure their continued optimal performance, which involves identifying the modal parameters of the underlying (bare) structure to which they are tuned to. Such an identification is also necessary for the design of control systems such as adaptive tuned mass dampers. Existing methods of arresting the motion of the damper to estimate the modal properties are expensive, time-consuming, and not suitable for online tuning. Instead, in this paper, parameter estimation using the Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) is proposed to undertake this task. The central task accomplished here is to estimate the dynamic characteristics of the bare structure (structure without the PTMD) from response measurements of the coupled main structure and PTMD system. The proposed methodology relies on ambient acceleration measurements of TMD-attenuated responses to estimate the bare structural modal frequencies, damping, and mode shapes, which can then be used either for condition assessment or for control. The application of EKF to modal parameter estimation is not new. However, a methodology to address the problem in wind engineering arising from stochastic disturbances present in both the measurement and state equations, and unknown process and noise covariances arising due to ambient excitations, is presented for the first time. Extensively studied for synthetic data, these two challenges have limited thus far the application of Kalman filtering to practical wind engineering parameter estimation problems using experimentally obtained measurements. In this paper, a detailed methodology is presented to address these challenges by using a modified form of the standard EKF equations, together with an algorithm to estimate the unknown disturbance and measurement noise covariances. Numerical simulations and an experimental study are both presented. Results demonstrate that the method proposed provides reliable estimates for the modal parameters required to perform condition assessment and control tasks for pendulum tuned mass dampers.     

Dynamic analysis of frames with viscoelastic dampers modelled by rheological models with fractionalderivatives

Frame structures with viscoelastic dampers mounted on them are considered in this paper. Viscoelastic (VE) dampers are modelled using two, three-parameter, fractional rheological models. The structures are treated as elastic linear systems. The equation of motion of the whole system (structure with dampers) is written in terms of state-space variables. The resulting matrix equation of motion is the fractional differential equation. The proposed state space formulation is new and does not require matrices with huge dimensions. The paper is devoted to determine the dynamic properties of the considered structures. The nonlinear eigenvalue problem is formulated from which the dynamic parameters of the system can be determined. The continuation method is used to solve the nonlinear eigenvalue problem. Moreover, results of typical calculations are presented.     

Layout optimization methodology of piezoelectric transducers in energy-recycling semi-active vibration control systems

An optimization methodology is proposed for the piezoelectric transducer (PZT) layout of an energy-recycling semi-active vibration control (ERSAVC) system for a space structure composed of trusses. Based on numerical optimization techniques, we intend to generate optimal location of PZTs under the constraint for the total length of PZTs. The design variables are set as the length of the PZT on each truss based on the concept of the ground structure approach. The transient problems of the mechanical and electrical vibrations based on the ERSAVC theory are considered as the equations of state. The objective is to minimize the integration of the square of all displacement over the whole analysis time domain. The sensitivity of the objective function is derived based on the adjoint variable method. Based on these formulations, an optimization algorithm is constructed using the fourth-order Runge–Kutta method and the method of moving asymptotes. Numerical examples are provided to illustrate the validity and utility of the proposed methodology. Using the proposed methodology, the optimal location of PZTs for the vibration suppression for multi-modal vibration is studied, which can be benchmark results of further study in the context of ERSAVC systems.     

An algorithm for the optimal design of passive vibration controllers for flexible systems

A gradient algorithm is developed for the optimal design of discrete passive dampers in the vibration control of a class of flexible (distributed parameter) systems. A complete mathematical development is presented for slender beams in flexural vibration. The algorithm systematically seeks to make the modal damping and natural frequencies of the system reach a set of preassigned values. Single damper and the two damper control examples indicate that the proposed algorithm converges faster than the Davison method used in reference [1] for those cases.     

Active isolation of a flexible structure from base vibration

This paper presents a theoretical and experimental investigation into an active vibration isolation system. Electromagnetic actuators are installed in parallel with each of four passive mounts, which are placed between a flexible equipment structure and a base structure which is either flexible or rigid. Isolation of low-frequency vibration is studied, so that the passive mounts can be modelled as lumped parameter springs and dampers. Decentralized velocity feedback control is employed, where each actuator is operated independently by feeding back the absolute equipment velocity at the same location. Good control and robust stability have been obtained both theoretically and experimentally for the multichannel control systems. This is to be expected if the base structure is rigid, in which case the actuator and sensor are, in principle, collocated and the control system implements a skyhook damper. With a flexible base structure, however, collocation is lost due to the reactive actuator force acting on the base structure, but the control system is still found to be robustly stable and to perform well. Attenuations of 20 dB are obtained in the sum of squared velocities on the equipment structure at the rigid-body mounted resonance frequencies. In addition, attenuations of up to 15 dB are obtained at the resonance frequencies of both the low order flexible modes of the base structure and the equipment structure.     

ACTIVE-PASSIVE PIEZOELECTRIC ABSORBERS FOR SYSTEMS UNDER MULTIPLE NON-STATIONARY HARMONIC EXCITATIONS

Previous research has shown that piezoelectric materials can be shunted with electrical networks to form devices that operate similarly to a mechanical vibration absorber. These systems can be tuned to provide modal damping (modal tuning) or to attenuate a harmonic disturbance (tonal tuning). Semi-active piezoelectric absorbers have also been proposed for suppressing harmonic excitations with varying frequency, a scenario that cannot be easily controlled using passive devices. However, these semi-active systems have limitations that restrict their applications. In a previous study, the authors have developed a high performance active-passive alternative to the semi-active absorber that uses a combination of a passive electrical circuit and active control actions. The active control consists of three parts: an adaptive inductor tuning action, a negative resistance action, and a coupling enhancement action. This new device has been shown, both analytically and experimentally, to be very effective for the suppression of harmonic disturbances with time-varying frequency. In the present paper, the adaptive active-passive piezoelectric absorber configuration is extended so that it can track and suppress multiple harmonic excitations. A new optimal tuning law is derived, and the stability conditions of the system are investigated. The effectiveness of this new multi-frequency absorber design is demonstrated by comparing its performance and control power requirement to the popular Filtered-x adaptive feedforward control algorithm.     

不同结构混沌系统的自适应同步和反同步

针对不同结构混沌系统的同步与反同步问题进行了研究.在系统参数已知时,采用主动控制法实现混沌系统的同步与反同步,并将主动控制器的设计方法进行了推广.在参数未知时,基于Lyapunov稳定性理论和自适应控制方法,给出了自适应控制器和参数自适应律,实现了参数均未知且结构不同的驱动系统和响应系统的同步与反同步.在控制器的设计过程中,将驱动系统和响应系统进行互换,讨论了互换前后的控制器和自适应律之间的关系.数值仿真结果说明了所提出设计方法的有效性. 关键词： 混沌同步 反同步 主动控制法 自适应控制法     

The research on semi-active muffler device of controlling the exhaust pipe’s low-frequency noise

In order to control low frequency noise in exhaust pipe, this paper puts forward a new concept of H-Q tube based semi-active muffler device. The semi-active muffler device and bench testing system have been designed and operated. Finite element simulation study on semi-active muffler and experimental study on semi-active muffler and passive muffler have been carried on. The effect of simulation and experiment are consistent. The semi-active muffler device acts well in low frequency band, especially between 50 Hz and 150 Hz. The average level of noise reduction is around 35 dB, which is much better than passive muffler. Between 150 Hz and 350 Hz, semi-active muffler has a better performance than passive muffler; above 350 Hz, it has worse performance compared with the passive muffler.     

起落架磁流变减摆器模糊PID控制算法的研究

为了减小飞机机轮的摆振,提高飞机乘坐的舒适性和驾驶的安全性,将磁流变控制技术应用于飞机起落架减摆器,实现减摆器阻尼力的实时智能控制。针对磁流变减摆器,建立了飞机起落架摆振的半主动控制非线性动力学模型,设计了模糊PID控制算法,并使用Matlab/Simulink建立了半主动控制仿真模型。通过调节流过磁感线圈的电流大小改变磁流变减摆器的阻尼力,从而减小机轮摆动实现半主动控制。通过动力学仿真,在给定速度下分别对比未安装减摆器、被动控制下以及半主动控制下机轮摆角、侧向位移、侧滑角随时间变化的曲线,结果表明了模糊PID控制算法的正确性和可行性,该控制策略可以较好的抑制机轮的摆振,同时也表明模糊PID控制算法具有良好的可控性,减摆效果也明显优于传统的被动控制。     

Optimal active absorber with internal state feedback for controlling resonant and transient vibration

An active, standalone vibration absorber utilizing the state feedback taken from the absorber mass is proposed. Expressions of the optimum absorber parameters are obtained both by optimizing the Η_∞ norm of the frequency response function. For improved transient response featuring low peak response and fast attenuation, the design procedure utilizes the mode equalization followed by the maximization of the damping. An interesting feature of the proposed absorber is that the performance of the absorber does not require having its natural frequency close to the natural frequency of the primary system as is generally the case for tuned passive absorbers or other active and semi-active tuned vibration absorbers. In fact, the performance of the proposed system can be progressively enhanced by increasing the absorber frequency. Compared to the optimum passive absorber, the optimal active absorber can yield wider bandwidth of operation around the natural frequency of the primary system and lower frequency response within the suppression band. The active absorber also offers better transient response compared to the passive absorber both optimized for the best transient responses. The efficacy of the absorber is analyzed both for a single-degree-of-freedom and beam like primary structure.     

Proportional-plus-integral semiactive control using magnetorheological dampers

Magnetorheological (MR) dampers are a promising alternative to structural active actuators as they provide adjustable damping over a wide range of frequencies without large power requirements. However, the complex dynamics that characterizes these devices makes it difficult to formulate control laws based on the MR damper model. Instead, many semiactive control strategies proposed in the literature have been based on the idea of “clipping” the voltage signal so that the MR damper force “tracks” a desired active control force which is computed on-line. With this idea many algorithms have been proposed using, among others, techniques such as optimal control, H_∞ control, sliding mode control, backstepping and QFT.This work presents a semiactive control strategy based on the same idea of “clipping” the voltage signal but using a simpler PI design. The proportional and integral gains of the controller are calculated so that the controller guarantees stability, minimization of the closed loop response and robustness against modeling errors. Effectiveness of the control strategy is compared to some others techniques and passive cases as well. Simulation results shows that this simple strategy can effectively improve the structural responses and achieve performance index comparable to that of more complex algorithms.