Using real-time hybrid simulation for active mass damper experimentation and validation

Abstract

This paper proposes a novel real-time hybrid simulation (RTHS) method for advancing active mass driver (AMD) control techniques. A comprehensive derivation of the equations of motion are developed, where the tracking problem of absolute acceleration is addressed by transforming it into a displacement tracking problem, within the RTHS control loop. The simulated and experimental results demonstrate acceptable acceleration tracking using this methodology, enabling a seamless and effective option for controlling the shake table transfer system, within the RTHS framework. To demonstrate and validate the effectiveness of the proposed techniques, complete AMD shake table, and AMD-RTHS experiments are conducted. To address the effects of uncertainty, a series of tests are conducted to form an uncertainty response envelope. Comparisons between RTHS and shake table tests show that the responses lie within RTHS uncertainty regions, demonstrating that acceleration can be successfully tracked. This study shows that an AMD control experiment can be realized using RTHS techniques, thus offering an option to advance the development of AMD control techniques. Finally, an RTHS framework is proposed for performance evaluation of structural control methods using AMDs.