Active Vibration Control of Seismically Excited Structures By Atmds: Stability and Performance Robustness Perspective

This paper demonstrates the trade-off between nominal performance and robustness in intelligent and conventional structural vibration control schemes; and, proposes a systematic treatment of stability robustness and performance robustness against uncertainty due to structural damage. The adopted control strategies include an intelligent genetic fuzzy logic controller (GFLC) and reduced-order observer-based (ROOB) controllers based on pole-placement and linear quadratic regulator (LQR) conventional schemes. These control strategies are applied to a seismically excited truss bridge structure through an active tuned mass damper (ATMD). Response of the bridge-ATMD control system to earthquake excitation records under nominal and uncertain conditions is analyzed via simulation tests. Based on these results, advantages of exploiting heuristic intelligence in seismic vibration control, as well as some complexities arising in realistic conventional control are highlighted. It has been shown that the coupled effect of spill-over (due to reduction and observation) and mismatch between the mathematical model and the actual plant (due to uncertainty and modeling errors) can destabilize the conventional closed-loop system even if each is alone tolerated. Accordingly, the GFLC proves itself to be the dominant design in terms of the compromise between performance and robustness.