Active control of sound radiation from vibrating structures has been an area of much research in the past decade. In Active Structural Acoustic Control (ASAC), the minimization of sound radiation is achieved by modifying the response of the structure through structural inputs rather than by exciting the acoustic medium (Active Noise Control, ANC). The ASAC technique often produces global far-field sound attenuation with relatively few actuators as compared to ANC. The structural control inputs of ASAC systems are usually constructed adaptively in the time domain based on a number of error signals to be minimized. One of the primary concerns in active control of sound is then to provide the controller with appropriate ``error'' information. Early investigations have implemented far-field microphones, thereby providing the controller with actual radiated pressure information. Most structure-borne sound control approaches now tend to eliminate the use of microphones by developing sensors that are integrated in the structure. This study presents a new sensing technique implementing such an approach. A structural acoustic sensor is developed for estimating radiation information from vibrating structures. This technique referred to as Discrete Structural Acoustic Sensing (DSAS) provides time domain estimates of the radiated sound pressure at prescribed locations in the far field over a broad frequency range. The structural acoustic sensor consists of a set of accelerometers mounted on the radiating structure and arrays of digital filters that process the measured acceleration signals in real time. The impulse response of each filter is constructed from the appropriate radiation Green's function for the source area associated with each accelerometer. Validation of the sensing technique is performed on two different systems: a baffled rectangular plate and a baffled finite cylinder. For both systems, the sensor is first analyzed in terms of prediction accuracy by comparing estimated and actual sound pressure radiated in the far field. The analysis is carried out on a numerical model of the plate and cylinder as well as on the real structures through experimental testing. The sensor is then implemented in a broadband radiation control system. The plate and cylinder are excited by broadband disturbance inputs over a frequency range encompassing several of the first flexural resonances of the structure. Single-sided piezo-electric actuators provide the structural control inputs while the sensor estimates are used as error signals. The controller is based on the filtered-x version of the adaptive LMS algorithm. Results from both analytical and experimental investigations are again presented for the two systems. Additional control results based on error microphones allow a comparison of the two sensing approaches in terms of control performance. The major outcome of this study is the ability of the structural acoustic sensor to effectively replace error microphones in broadband radiation control systems. In particular, both analytical and experimental results show the level of sound attenuation achieved when implementing Discrete Structural Acoustic Sensing rivaled that achieved with far-field error microphones. Finally, the approach presents a significant alternative over other existing structural sensing techniques as it requires very little system modeling. / Ph. D.

An advanced model of active control of fan noise for ultra high bypass turbofan engines has been developed. This model is based on a boundary integral equation method and simulates the propagation, radiation and control of the noise generated by an engine fan surrounded by a duct of finite length and cylindrical shape, placed in a uniform flow. Control sources, modeled by point monopoles placed along the wall of the engine inlet or outlet duct, inject anti-noise into the duct to destructively interfere with the sound field generated by the fan. The duct inner wall can be lined or rigid. Unlike current methods, reflection from the duct openings is taken into account, as well as the presence of the evanescent modes. Forward, as well as backward (i.e., from the rear of the engine), external radiation is computed. The development of analytical expressions for the sound field resulting from both the fan loading noise and the control sources is presented. Two fan models are described. The first model uses spinning line sources with radially distributed strength to model the loading force that the fan blades exert on the medium. The second model uses radial arrays of spinning point dipoles to simulate the generation of fan modes of specific modal amplitudes. It is shown that these fan models can provide a reasonable approximation of actual engine fan noise in the instance when the modal amplitude of the propagating modes or the loading force distribution on the fan blades, is known. Sample cases of active noise control are performed to demonstrate the feasibility of the model. The results from these tests indicate that this model 1) is conducive to more realistic studies of active control of fan noise on ultra high bypass turbofan engines because it accounts for the presence of evanescent modes and for interference between inlet and outlet radiation, which were shown to have some impact on the performance of the active control system; 2) is very useful because it allows monitoring of any region of the acoustic field; 3) is computationally fast, and therefore suitable to conduct parametric studies. Finally, the potential that active noise control techniques have for reducing fan noise on an ultra high bypass turbofan engine is investigated. Feedforward control algorithms are simulated. Pure active control techniques, as well as hybrid (active/passive) control techniques, are studied. It is demonstrated that active noise control has the potential to reduce substantially, and over a relatively large far field sector, the fan noise radiated by an ultra high bypass turbofan engine. It is also shown that a hybrid control system can achieve significantly better levels of noise reduction than a pure passive or pure active control system, and that its optimum solution is more robust than the one achieved with a pure active control system. The model has shown to realistically predict engine acoustic behavior and is thus likely to be a very useful tool for designing active noise control systems for ultra high bypass turbofan engines. / Ph. D.

The feasibility of applying active control theory to control both the transient and steady state response of a two cable-stayed bridge has been investigated. The bridge has been modeled as a two degree freedom system in bending and torsion, excited by both buffeting and self-excited loads. The existing suspension cables have been used as active tendons by which the control forces are applied to the bridge deck at the points of the anchorage. The control force from each suspension cable is actuated through a hydraulic-servomechanism which is regulated by the sensed motion of the bridge deck at the anchorage of the cable. Stability and steady state response analyses have been presented for both controlled and uncontrolled motion. The power requirement for the control devices has been derived. Finally, numerical examples have been worked out to demonstrate the feasibility of the derived theory for two cable-stayed bridges. / Ph. D.

This work investigates the use of multi-degree of freedom (MDOF) passive and active vibration absorbers for the control of structural vibration as an improvement to conventional single degree of freedom (SDOF) vibration absorbers. An analytical model is first used to compare passive two degree of freedom (2DOF) absorbers to SDOF absorbers using point impedance as the performance criterion. The results show that one 2DOF absorber can provide the same impedance at two resonance frequencies as two SDOF absorbers for equal amounts of total mass. Experimental testing on a composite cylindrical shell supports the assertion that a 2DOF absorber can attenuate two resonance frequencies. Further modeling shows that MDOF absorbers can utilize the multiple mode shapes that correspond to their multiple resonance frequencies to couple into modes of a distributed primary system to improve the attenuation of structural resonance. By choosing the coupling positions of the MDOF absorber such that its mode shape mirrors that of the primary system, the mass of the absorber can be utilized at multiple resonance frequencies. For limited ranges of targeted resonance frequencies, this technique can result in MDOF absorbers providing attenuation equivalent to SDOF absorbers while using less mass. The advantage gained with the MDOF absorbers is dependent on the primary system. This work compares the advantage gained using the MDOF absorbers for three primary systems: MDOF lumped parameter systems, a pinned-pinned plate, and a cylindrical shell. The active vibration absorber study in this work is highly motivated by the desire to reduce structural vibration in a rocket payload fairing. Since the efficiency of acoustic foam is very poor at low frequencies, the target bandwidth was 50 to 200 Hz. A 2DOF active vibration absorber was desired to exhibit broad resonance characteristics over this frequency band. An analytical model was developed to facilitate the design of the mechanical and electrical properties of the 2DOF active vibration absorber, and is supported by experimental data. Eight active vibration absorbers were then constructed and used in a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) feed-forward control system on a mock payload fairing under high level acoustic excitation. The results show significant levels of global attenuation within the targeted frequency band. / Master of Science

Energy due to fluid-borne and structure-borne disturbances propagating in a fluid-filled pipe will be carried by the structure and the fluid. Energy transfer may occur between these two media due to the coupling between the structure and the fluid. It's not clear when the excitation is fluid-borne or structure-borne, due to the complexity in piping installation designs and the strong coupling between the fluid and shell walls. It is necessary to devise control approaches that tackle both components of the excitation simultaneously. This study will demonstrate new approaches in active and passive control techniques and show their advantages over classical control approaches. It is necessary to understand the physical behavior of fluid-filled pipes, in order to develop a viable control methodology. The equations of motion for the shell and the fluid are needed to characterize the system. These combined with the dispersion equations can then be used to derive analytical expressions for energy flow in the system. The research is limited to lower order wave types. Hence, the expressions for energy flow are derived only for the n=0 and n=1 shell waves and n=0 fluid wave. Higher order waves have cut-on frequencies and were not analyzed. Current sensing methodologies are limited to the analysis of wave types separately. A new approach of wave decomposition using multiple sensors is developed and used to characterize discontinuities along the pipe. The effect of discontinuities and correct control methodologies are investigated. A new control methodology is developed and implemented. The natural distribution of energy into different wave types as it encounters discontinuities is used to devise control solutions with non-intrusive inertial actuators. Improvements of 16 dB in shell waves and 12 dB in fluid waves over the correct control approach are experimentally demonstrated. / Master of Science

Active control constitutes the state of the art in vibration management in rotating machines. However, existing designs are impractical and costly, and hence not yet widely applied. The goal of the research reported here was to develop a design which would allow the implementation of active technology in a wider range of rotating machine applications. Thus, this study focuses on a novel active rotor topology, consisting of a hollow rotor with internally mounted sensors and actuators. This layout provides greater freedom to select the sensor and actuator positions along the rotor, and naturally protects the devices from harsh working environments. The research was structured according to four themes. Firstly, the concept feasibility was explored by constructing a fully functioning prototype. MEMS accelerometers and mass balancer actuators were mounted in an assembled rotor, together with a microcontroller and radio unit to enable wireless transmission of data. Secondly, the behaviour of MEMS accelerometers in a rotating frame of reference was studied. An output model was derived and applied to the study of whirl orbits and transient vibration. Further, techniques were developed to extract mean displacement and angular velocity information from the sensor signals. An analysis of potential sources of measurement error was conducted, and methods for their mitigation devised. The third theme focused on developing active vibration control techniques suitable for use with active rotors. The core of this work is the development and successful implementation of a non a priori method, Algorithmic Direct Search Control. This technique enables vibration to be minimised without knowledge of the system characteristics, by applying a direct search optimisation technique as a control law. Finally, the combination of active rotors and Active Magnetic Bearings was considered to tackle the problem of sensor/actuator non-collocation. The challenge of levitating a rotor on AMBs using only internal accelerometers was approached via integration-based displacement information extraction, to exploit existing PID controllers. This method proved unfeasible in practice, but valuable lessons were derived from the study. The key finding of this work is that active rotor technology is versatile, cost-effective, powerful and feasible. As such, it offers great potential as a route to achieving a more practical and generalised implementation of active control technology in rotating machinery.

Obstacles sometimes limit enrollment in randomized clinical trials of an exper- imental product versus an active control, making it desirable to augment the ran- domized control group with historical control groups. However, bias between control groups with respect to the mean outcome could lead to spurious conclusions. Meth- ods are necessary that allow for the combination of control groups while controlling for bias. Pocock (1976) developed a Bayesian test to address this need, but it requires sub- jective specification of the variance of the bias between the randomized and historical control groups and is designed to include only a single historical control group. In the context of an actively controlled non-inferiority trial, we extend his method on three fronts. First, we replace subjective specification of the variance of the bias with empirically driven estimates. Second, we develop an adaptive design that re-powers a trial based on an interim estimate of the variance of the bias using observed data. Third, we modify the test to include multiple historical control groups. When including a single historical control group, simulations show that the true bias, if known, can be used in place of the variance of the bias, and that this estimate ivmaintains Type I Error with no loss in power as compared to using the true variance of the bias. Further, we show that using an empirical estimate of the bias to estimate the variance of bias may result in moderately inflated Type I Error, but that using a conservative estimate of the bias (the upper bound of a 90% confidence interval) maintains Type I Error. Simulations also demonstrate that using an estimate of the bias at the interim and conclusion provides designed power but may result in moder- ately inflated Type I Error. Therefore, a conservative estimate of the bias should be used at trial end when using this approach. Lastly, it is shown that if an adequate number of multiple historical control groups are available, the modified test maintains Type I Error when using bias estimates. These methods provide objective guidance on parameter estimation, but further research is necessary in order to improve power.

Changes in the characteristics of the structure, such as damage, have not been considered in most of the active and semi-active control methods that have been used to control and optimize the response of civil engineering structures. In this dissertation, a direct adaptive control which can deal with the existence of measurement errors and changes in structural characteristics or load conditioning is used to control the performance of structures. A Simple Adaptive Control Method (SACM) is modified to control civil structures and improve their performance. The effectiveness of the SACM is verified by several numerical examples. The SACM is used to reduce the structural response such as drift and acceleration using active and semi-active devices, and its performance is compared with that of other control methods. Also, a probabilistic indirect adaptive control method is developed and its behavior is compared to the SACM using a simple numerical example. In addition to the simplicity of the SACM implementation, the results show that SACM is very effective to reduce the response of structures with linear and non-linear behavior in comparison with other control methods.

A multidisciplinary design optimization framework is developed that integrates control system design with aerostructural design for a highly-deformable wing. The objective of this framework is to surpass the existing aircraft endurance limits through the use of an active load alleviation system designed concurrently with the rest of the aircraft. The novelty of this work is two fold. First, a unified dynamics framework is developed to represent the full six-degree-of-freedom rigid-body along with the structural dynamics. It allows for an integrated control design to account for both manoeuvrability (flying quality) and aeroelasticity criteria simultaneously. Secondly, by synthesizing the aircraft control system along with the structural sizing and aerodynamic shape design, the final design has the potential to exploit synergies among the three disciplines and yield higher performing aircraft. A co-rotational structural framework featuring Euler--Bernoulli beam elements is developed to capture the wing's nonlinear deformations under the effect of aerodynamic and inertial loadings. In this work, a three-dimensional aerodynamic panel code, capable of calculating both steady and unsteady loadings is used. Two different control methods, a model predictive controller (MPC) and a 2-DOF mixed-norm robust controller, are considered in this work to control a highly flexible aircraft. Both control techniques offer unique advantages that make them promising for controlling a highly flexible aircraft. The control system works towards executing time-dependent manoeuvres along with performing gust/manoeuvre load alleviation. The developed framework is investigated for demonstration in two design cases: one in which the control system simply worked towards achieving or maintaining a target altitude, and another where the control system is also performing load alleviation. The use of the active load alleviation system results in a significant improvement in the aircraft performance relative to the optimum result without load alleviation. The results show that the inclusion of control system discipline along with other disciplines at early stages of aircraft design improves aircraft performance. It is also shown that structural stresses due to gust excitations can be better controlled by the use of active structural control systems which can improve the fatigue life of the structure.

A multidisciplinary design optimization framework is developed that integrates control system design with aerostructural design for a highly-deformable wing. The objective of this framework is to surpass the existing aircraft endurance limits through the use of an active load alleviation system designed concurrently with the rest of the aircraft. The novelty of this work is two fold. First, a unified dynamics framework is developed to represent the full six-degree-of-freedom rigid-body along with the structural dynamics. It allows for an integrated control design to account for both manoeuvrability (flying quality) and aeroelasticity criteria simultaneously. Secondly, by synthesizing the aircraft control system along with the structural sizing and aerodynamic shape design, the final design has the potential to exploit synergies among the three disciplines and yield higher performing aircraft. A co-rotational structural framework featuring Euler--Bernoulli beam elements is developed to capture the wing's nonlinear deformations under the effect of aerodynamic and inertial loadings. In this work, a three-dimensional aerodynamic panel code, capable of calculating both steady and unsteady loadings is used. Two different control methods, a model predictive controller (MPC) and a 2-DOF mixed-norm robust controller, are considered in this work to control a highly flexible aircraft. Both control techniques offer unique advantages that make them promising for controlling a highly flexible aircraft. The control system works towards executing time-dependent manoeuvres along with performing gust/manoeuvre load alleviation. The developed framework is investigated for demonstration in two design cases: one in which the control system simply worked towards achieving or maintaining a target altitude, and another where the control system is also performing load alleviation. The use of the active load alleviation system results in a significant improvement in the aircraft performance relative to the optimum result without load alleviation. The results show that the inclusion of control system discipline along with other disciplines at early stages of aircraft design improves aircraft performance. It is also shown that structural stresses due to gust excitations can be better controlled by the use of active structural control systems which can improve the fatigue life of the structure.