The Finite Element Method (FEM) based computational mechanics is applied to simulate the optimal attenuation of vibrations in actively controlled structures. The simulation results provide the forces to be generated by actuators, as well as the structures response. Vibrations can be attenuated by applying either open loop or closed loop control strategies. In open loop control, the control forces for a given initial (or disturbed) configuration of the structure are determined in terms of time, and can be preprogrammed in advance. On the other hand, the control forces in closed loop control depend only on the current state of the system, which should be continuously monitored. Optimal attenuation is obtained by solving the optimality equations for the problem derived from the Pontryagins principle. These equations together with the initial and final boundary conditions constitute the two-point-boundary-value (TPBV) problem. <p>Here the optimal solutions are obtained by applying an analogy (referred to as the beam analogy) between the optimality equation and the equation for a certain problem of static beams in bending. The problem of analogous beams is solved by the standard FEM in the spatial domain, and then the results are converted into the solution of the optimal vibration control problem in the time domain. The concept of the independent-modal-space-control (IMSC) is adopted, in which the number of independent actuators control the same number of vibrations modes. <p>The steps of the analogy are programmed into an algorithm referred to as the Beam Analogy Algorithm (BAA). As an illustration of the approach, the BAA is used to simulate the open loop vibration control of a structure with several sets of actuators. Some details, such as an efficient meshing of the analogous beams and effective solving of the target condition are discussed. <p> Next, the BAA is modified to handle closed loop vibration control problems. The algorithm determines the optimal feedback gain matrix, which is then used to calculate the actuator forces required at any current state of the system. The methods accuracy is also analyzed.

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The Finite Element Method (FEM) based computational mechanics is applied to simulate the optimal attenuation of vibrations in actively controlled structures. The simulation results provide the forces to be generated by actuators, as well as the structures response. Vibrations can be attenuated by applying either open loop or closed loop control strategies. In open loop control, the control forces for a given initial (or disturbed) configuration of the structure are determined in terms of time, and can be preprogrammed in advance. On the other hand, the control forces in closed loop control depend only on the current state of the system, which should be continuously monitored. Optimal attenuation is obtained by solving the optimality equations for the problem derived from the Pontryagins principle. These equations together with the initial and final boundary conditions constitute the two-point-boundary-value (TPBV) problem. <p>Here the optimal solutions are obtained by applying an analogy (referred to as the beam analogy) between the optimality equation and the equation for a certain problem of static beams in bending. The problem of analogous beams is solved by the standard FEM in the spatial domain, and then the results are converted into the solution of the optimal vibration control problem in the time domain. The concept of the independent-modal-space-control (IMSC) is adopted, in which the number of independent actuators control the same number of vibrations modes. <p>The steps of the analogy are programmed into an algorithm referred to as the Beam Analogy Algorithm (BAA). As an illustration of the approach, the BAA is used to simulate the open loop vibration control of a structure with several sets of actuators. Some details, such as an efficient meshing of the analogous beams and effective solving of the target condition are discussed. <p> Next, the BAA is modified to handle closed loop vibration control problems. The algorithm determines the optimal feedback gain matrix, which is then used to calculate the actuator forces required at any current state of the system. The methods accuracy is also analyzed.

Conformal airborne antennas have several advantages compared to externally mounted antennas, and they will play an important role in future aircrafts. However, they are subjected to vibration induced deformations which degrade their electromagnetic performances. With the motivation of suppressing such vibrations, use of active vibration control techniques with piezoelectric actuators is investigated in this study. At first, it is aimed to control the first three bending modes of a cantilever beam. In this scope, four different modal controllers / positive position feedback (PPF), resonant control (RC), integral resonant control (IRC) and positive position feedback with feed-through (PPFFT) are designed based on both reduced order finite element model and the system identification model. PPFFT, is a modified version of PPF which is proposed as a new controller in this study. Results of real- time control experiments show that PPFFT presents superior performance compared to its predecessor, PPF, and other two methods. In the second part of the study, it is focused on controlling the first three modes of a rectangular plate with four clamped edges. Best location alternatives for three piezoelectric actuators are determined with modal strain energy method. Based on the reduced order finite element model, three PPFFT controllers are designed for three collocated transfer functions. Disturbance rejection performances show the convenience of PPFFT in multi-input multi-output control systems. Performance of the control system is also verified by discrete-time simulations for a random disturbance representing the in-flight aircraft vibration characteristics.

This study focuses on developing structural health monitoring techniques to detect damage in deepwater risers subjected to vortex-induced vibration (VIV), and studying vibration control strategies to extend the service life of offshore structures. Vibration-based damage detection needs both responses from the undamaged and damaged deepwater risers. Because no experimental data for damaged deepwater risers is available, a model to predict the VIV responses of deepwater risers with given conditions is needed, which is the forward problem. In this study, a new three dimensional (3D) analytical model is proposed considering coupled VIV (in-line and cross-flow) for top-tensioned riser (TTR) with wake oscillators. The model is verified by direct numerical simulations and experimental data. The inverse problem is to detect damage using VIV responses from the analytical models with/without damage, where the change between dynamic properties obtained from riser responses represents damage. The inverse problem is performed in two steps: blind identification and damage detection. For blind identification, a wavelet modified second order blind identification (WMSOBI) method and a complex WMSOBI (CWMSOBI) method are proposed to extract modal properties from output only responses for standing and traveling wave vibration, respectively. Numerical simulations and experiments validate the effectiveness of proposed methods. For damage detection, a novel weighted distribution force change (WDFC) index (for standing wave) and a phase angle change (PAC) index (for traveling wave) are proposed and proven numerically. Experiments confirm that WDFC can accurately locate damage and estimate damage severity. Furthermore, a new fatigue damage estimation method involving WMSOBI, S-N curve and Miner's rule is proposed and proven to be effective using field test data. Vibration control is essential to extend the service life and enhance the safety of offshore structures. Literature review shows that semi-active control devices are potentially a good solution. A novel semi-active control strategy is proposed to tune the damper properties to match the dominant frequency of the structural response in real-time. The effectiveness of proposed strategy in vibration reduction for deepwater risers and offshore floating wind turbines is also validated through numerical studies.

In this thesis, an attitude control system based on Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR) technique is developed for a hypothetical Earth observation satellite with a long flexible boom. To improve pointing performance of the satellite, the piezoelectric actuators are used as well. The boom is rectangular made of aluminum with the surface bonded piezoelectric layers on all four surfaces. The boom is modeled using finite elements. The pointing performance of the satellite using various metrics is evaluated through simulations. Effectiveness of the piezoelectric actuators is demonstrated.

As Civil Engineering structures, e.g., tall buildings, long span bridges, deep water offshore platforms, nuclear power plants, etc., have become more costly, complex and serve more critical functions, the consequences of their failure are catastrophic. Therefore, the protection of these structures against damage induced by large environmental loads, e.g., earthquakes, strong wind gusts and waves, etc., is without doubt, a worldwide priority. However, structures cannot be designed to withstand all possible external loads and some extraordinary loading episodes do occur, leading to damage or even failure of the structure. Protection of a structure against hazards can be achieved by various means such as modifying structural rigidities, increasing structural damping, and by attaching external devices, known as control devices. Control devices can be deployed either to isolate the structure from external excitation or to absorb input seismic energy to the structure (absorber) so as to mitigate vibration in the primary structure. Seismic base isolation is one such mechanism which isolates a structure from harmful ground excitations. Seismic base isolation is a widely accepted and implemented structural control mechanism due to its robustness and ease in deployment. Following the Northridge earthquake (1994), and Kobe earthquake (1995), the interest of structural engineers in understanding near-source ground motions has enhanced. Documents published after these earthquakes emphasized the issue of large base displacements because of the use of none or little isolation damping (of viscous type only) prior to these events. More recent studies have investigated analytically and experimentally, the efficiency of various dissipative mechanisms to protect seismic isolated structures from recorded near-source long period, pulse-type, high velocity ground motions. Consequently, hybrid isolation systems, seismic base isolation supplemented with damping mechanisms, have become the focus of current research trend in structural vibration control. Hybrid base isolation system incorporating passive supplemental damping devices like, viscous fluid dampers, etc., performs satisfactorily in minimizing isolator displacement but at the same time increases superstructure acceleration response. Furthermore, the passive system can be tuned to a particular frequency range and its performance decreases for frequencies of excitation outside the tunning bandwidth. In such a scenario, active control devices in addition to base isolation mechanism provide better performance in reducing base displacement and superstructure acceleration for a broad range of excitation frequencies. Tremendous power requirement and the possibility of power failure during seismic hazards restrict the usage of active systems as a supplemental device. Semi-active devices provide the robustness of passive devices and adaptive nature of active devices. These characteristics make them better suited for structural control applications. The recent focus is on the development of magnetorheological (MR) dampers as semi-active device for structural vibration control applications. MR dampers provide hysteretic damping and can operate with battery power. The thrust of this thesis is on developing a hybrid base isolation mechanism using MR dampers as a supplemental damping device. The use of MR damper as a semi-active device involves two steps; development of a model to describe the MR damper hysteretic behaviour; development of a proper nonlinear control algorithm to monitor MR damper current / voltage supply. Existing parametric models of MR damper hysteretic behaviour, e.g., Bouc-Wen model, fail to consider the effect of amplitude and frequency of excitation on the device. Recently reported literature has demonstrated the necessity of incorporating amplitude and frequency dependence of MR damper models. The current/voltage supply as the input variable to the MR damper restricts the direct use of any control algorithms developed for active control of structures. The force predicted by the available control algorithms should be mapped to equivalent current/voltage and then to be fed into the damper. Available semi-active algorithms in the literature used ‘on-off’ or ‘bang-bang’ strategy for MR applications due to nonlinear current/voltage-force relation of MR damper. The ‘on-off’ nature of these algorithms neither provides smooth change in MR damper current/voltage input nor considers all possible current/ voltage values within its minimum to maximum range. Secondly, these algorithms fail to consider the effect of the MR damper applied and commanded current/voltage dynamics. The thrust of this dissertation is to develop semi-active control algorithms to monitor MR damper supply current/voltage. The study develops a Bouc-Wen based model to characterize the MR damper hysteretic phenomenon. Experimental results and modeling details have been documented. A fuzzy based intelligent control and two model-based nonlinear control algorithms based on optimal dynamic inversion and integral backstepping have been developed. Performance of the fuzzy logic based intelligent control has been explored using experimental investigation on a three storey base isolated building. Further the application of the proposed controllers on a benchmark building; a benchmark highway bridge and a stay cable vibration reduction have been discussed. Experimental study has revealed that the performance of optimal FLC is better than manually designed FLC in terms of reducing base displacement and storey accelerations. The performance of both the FLCs (simple FLC and genetic algorithm based optimal FLC) is better than ‘passive-off’ (zero ampere current supply) and ‘passive-on’ (one ampere current supply) condition of MR damper applications. The ‘passive-off’ results have shown higher base displacements with lower storey accelerations, whereas, the ‘passive-on’ results have reduced base displacement to the least but at the same time increased the storey acceleration too much. The FLC monitored MR damper show a compromise between the two passive conditions. Analytical results confirm these observations. Numerical simulations of the base isolated building with the two model based MR damper control algorithms developed have shown a better performance over FLC and widely used clipped optimal algorithms. The applications of the proposed semi-active control algorithms (FLC, dynamic inversion and integral backstepping) have shown better performance in comparison to that of control algorithms provided with the benchmark studies.

Vibration control requires high dynamic stiffness in mechanical structures for a reliable performance under extreme conditions. Dynamic stiffness composes the parameters of stiffness (K) and damping (η) that are usually in a trade-off relationship. This thesis study aims to break the trade-off relationship. After identifying the underlying mechanism of damping in composite materials and joint interfaces, this thesis studies the deposition technique and physical characteristics of nano-structured HDS (high dynamic stiffness) composite thick-layer coatings. The HDS composite were created by enlarging the internal grain boundary surface area through reduced grain size in nano scale (≤ 40 nm). The deposition process utilizes a PECVD (Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapour Deposition) method combined with the HiPIMS (High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering) technology. The HDS composite exhibited significantly higher surface hardness and higher elastic modulus compared to Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA), yet similar damping property. The HDS composites successfully realized vibration control of cutting tools while applied in their clamping interfaces. Compression preload at essential joint interfaces was found to play a major role in stability of cutting processes and a method was provided for characterizing joint interface properties directly on assembled structures. The detailed analysis of a build-up structure showed that the vibrational mode energy is shifted by varying the joint interface’s compression preload. In a build-up structure, the location shift of vibration mode’s strain energy affects the dynamic responses together with the stiffness and damping properties of joint interfaces. The thesis demonstrates that it is possible to achieve high stiffness and high damping simultaneously in materials and structures. Analysis of the vibrational strain energy distribution was found essential for the success of vibration control.

Millions of cranes are used around the world. Because of their wide-spread use in construction industries, boom cranes are an important class of cranes whose performance should be optimized. One limitation of most boom cranes is they are usually attached to a stationary base or a mobile base that is only used for initial positioning and not during operation. This limits the workspace of the boom crane significantly. If a boom crane was attached to a mobile base that could be safely used during lifting operations, then the boom crane workspace could be extended significantly. The problem with using cranes, and in particular mobile cranes, is the large oscillations of the payload that are typically induced when moving the crane. One control strategy that has been used to control oscillation on other types of cranes is called Input Shaping, a command filtering technique that reduces motion-induced vibration in oscillatory systems. This thesis develops a dynamics model for a mobile boom crane and analyzes the difficulty of controlling payload oscillation on a boom crane. Input shaping will shown to be effective for controlling oscillation on boom cranes. A new method for operating a boom crane in Cartesian coordinates will also be shown. This thesis will also detail the design of a small-scale mobile boom crane for experimental and research purposes. A substantial part of this thesis will also focus on the development of new input-shaping methods for nonlinear drive systems commonly found on boom and other types of cranes. An example application of a control system featuring input shaping for an industrial bridge crane will also be discussed.

The rapid movement of machines is a challenging control problem because it often results in high levels of vibration. As a result, flexible machines are typically moved relatively slowly to avoid such vibration. Therefore, motion-induced vibration limits the operational speed of the system. Input shaping is one method that eliminates motion-induced vibrations by intelligently designing the reference command such that system vibration is cancelled. It has been successfully implemented on a number of systems, including bridge and tower cranes. The implementation of input shaping on cranes provides a substantial increase in the operational efficiency. Unfortunately, most cranes, once erected, have limited or no base mobility. This limits their workspace. The addition of base mobility could help extend the operational effectiveness of cranes and may also expand crane functionality. Mobile cranes may also be better suited for use in harsh and/or distant environments. Teleoperation of oscillatory systems, such as cranes, then becomes another avenue for advancement of crane functionality. Base mobility in cranes presents both additional control challenges and operational opportunities. A crane with base mobility is redundantly actuated (overactuated), such that multiple combinations of actuators can be used to move a payload from one location to another. This opens the possibility for the selection of a combination of actuation that provides both rapid motion and limited system vibration. The extension of input shaping into this operational domain will provide a method to maximize effective actuation combinations. Toward addressing these issues, new multi-input shaping methods were developed and applied to a mobile, portable tower crane. During this development, a firm understanding of robust input shaping techniques and the compromises inherent to input shaper design was formed. In addition, input shaping was compared to other command generation techniques, namely lowpass and notch filtering, and proven to be superior for vibration reduction in mechanical systems. Another, new class of input shapers was also introduced that limit the input shaper induced overshoot in human operated systems. Finally, a series of crane operator studies investigated the application of input shaping techniques to teleoperated cranes. These studies suggested that input shaping is able to dramatically improve remote crane operator performance.