Experimental Verification of Acceleration Feedback Control Strategies for an Active Tendon System

Abstract

Most of the current active structural control strategies for aseismic protection have been based on either full-state feedback (i.e., structural displacements and velocities) or velocity feedback alone. However, accurate measurement of the displacements and velocities is difficult to achieve directly, particularly during seismic activity, since the foundation of the structure is moving with the ground. Because accelerometers can readily provide reliable and inexpensive measurements of the structural accelerations at strategic points on the structure, development of control methods based on acceleration feedback is an ideal solution to this problem. The purpose of this report is to demonstrate experimentally that stochastic control methods based on absolute acceleration measurements are viable and robust, and that they can achieve performance levels comparable to full-state feedback controllers.<BR>