Damage-tolerant active control in real-time of flexible structures

• Grant number: 22/16271-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: June 01, 2023
• Status: Discontinued
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Mechanical Engineering
• Principal Investigator: Samuel da Silva
• Grantee: Fernanda Thaís Colombo
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Engenharia (FEIS). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Ilha Solteira. Ilha Solteira , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 24/08571-1 - Koopman Model Predictive Control applied in a Damage-tolerant Active strategy, BE.EP.PD

Abstract

The integration of active vibration control and real-time assessment of structural integrity has become increasingly important in reducing the impact that unwanted vibration and damage can have on a structure. As structural damage can be characterized by adverse changes in the structure's parameters, monitoring the system's input-output signals in real time can assist in detecting damage and determining its severity as early as possible. Moreover, estimating the system's current dynamics provides an online reconfiguration mechanism capable of adjusting the control system, designed to suppress the vibration and mitigate the impact of the damage on the structure. In this project, we will evaluate the improvement of a flexible structure's performance using a damage-tolerant active control strategy with real-time system identification and a reconfigurable controller. First, we will implement a recursive estimation algorithm, which processes the ongoing input-output measurements and develops a dynamics model simultaneously. Kalman Filter-based methods will be investigated to recursively estimate the states and identify the time-varying parameters in the structure's model. Then, we will design a control strategy for vibration attenuation that can be reconfigured online in case of damage. Based on the online model of the system, indirect adaptive controllers, like the adaptive linear quadratic control and adaptive model predictive control, will be implemented to update the control law according to the current dynamics. Numerical and experimental tests involving the integration of vibration control and real-time monitoring will be carried out on a two-floor flexible prototype with an active mass damper. Contributions to the vibration control of structures that might be subject to damage are expected.