Fundamental Studies of AVC with Actuator Dynamics

Abstract

Active vibration control (AVC) of human-induced vibrations in structures with proof-mass actuators has been subject to much research in recent years. This has predominantly focussed on footbridges and floors and there is some evidence that this research is paving the way for commercial installations of AVC where traditional vibration control measures are not appropriate. However, the design of an AVC system is a complex task because of the influence of actuator dynamics, the contributions from higher frequency modes of vibration and the effect of low and high pass filters that are required to make the control algorithm implementable. This puts the AVC design process beyond the abilities of the vast majority of civil design engineers, even at a scheming stage to approximate what sort of reductions could be achieved by such a system. This paper considers a generalised system and investigates what sort of performance can be achieved in theory by a perfect AVC system, then considers the added complexity of actuator dynamics to demonstrate how this degrades the performance from optimal.