Self-adaptive modal control for time-varying structures

Abstract

For the past several years, modal controllers are widely studied and used in the field of vibration or vibro-acoustics control. They are efficient but not robust, because these methods involve a reconstructor based on a modal truncation. When the dynamic behavior of the structure change, the controller and reconstructor must be updated to cope with the changes in the structure behavior, in order to maintain both performance and robustness. A solution is adaptive control but this approach needs some specific information not generally available particularly in the case of undergone modifications. This paper deals with a self-adaptive modal control based on a real-time identifier, which avoid the need of specific information. The identifier permits to update the controller and the reconstructor according to the changes of modal characteristics of time-varying structures. A classical algorithm of identification is used to obtain a state space model with an unspecified state vector. Then, based on this model, a well adapted transformation is carried out to get the modal characteristics from the expression of complex modes, including the mode shapes. As a criterion of running identification, the value of “variance-accounted for” (VAF) is employed to carry out the identifier only when the initial or previous model is not enough exact. A Linear Quadratic Gaussian Algorithm is employed in such a way that the controller and observer can be optimized according to the updated modal model. By this way, a self-adaptive modal control is completed and can demonstrate some smart properties. The proposed methodology is carried out on a simple but representative time-varying mechanical discrete structure. An inertia modification leads not only to low modal frequency shifts but also to inversion of a mode shape which is shown to lead to unstable configuration when control system is not updated. The overall procedure will be described through simulations and performed for different operating conditions, which will prove that mode shapes have to be precisely determined and updated in the controller and observer to guarantee a robust modal control with high performance in spite of the changes of structure.