Designing a unified wireless system for vibration control

Abstract

This research aims to develop a unified wireless control system which would successfully control the vibration of bridges, and also to evaluate its performance. In this unified wireless control system, a wireless measurement control system is developed independently from the central system, and it controls the structure by feedback on the basis of the measured signals transmitted from the control device. Also this independent control system wirelessly monitors the general performance of the control device on the site and reports to the central control system. Embedded with control algorithm and made into a system with the control device, it continuously controls the vibration by feedback. Since this independently made wireless measurement-control system does not have enough memory space for effective control, all signals can be made to communicate wirelessly with the central control system which has more memory space. When needed, a user can directly intervene in the control process. When the possible disconnection of wires due to earthquake or some other disasters can cause troubles in data transmission or power supply, the wireless control system can safely perform its function. The performance of this unified wireless control system is evaluated in comparison to a wired control system by means of vibration control experiments on bridges. In these experiments, a semi-active control method is selected, and all outputs are quantitatively compared and evaluated. As a result, this unified wireless control system with a central control system is proved to be effective for vibration control and also overcome the shortcomings of the wired system.