Control Of Large-scale Structures Research Articles

Large scale structural control on regional coastline orientations: example from South-eastern France

Giuliano, J., Godard, V., Dewez, T., Lebourg, T., Emmanuel Tric. and Marçot, N., 2013. Structural control on regional coastline orientations: example from South-eastern FranceThe morphology of rocky coastlines is the expression of the interaction between external forcings and the intrinsic rock mass properties, leading to a specific erosional response. Among these rock mass properties the contribution of structural discontinuities is still poorly understood. Nevertheless, recent studies suggest that geological structures may have a first order influence in controlling the coast morphology. Understanding how the structural pattern interacts with erosion processes is fundamental to assess the evolution of these environments. We propose a regional comparison between the orientation of rocky shorelines and faults segments in six different litho-structural units in the Provence and Côte d'Azur area (southern France). Our analysis reveals that in many of these sectors the dominant fault trend (E-W) is also present in the distribution of coastlines orientations. In some particular areas, a complex geological inheritance (Maures) blurs this apparent relationship between faults and coastal morphology. We conclude that, in our study area, the level of complexity of the structural setting seems to significantly control the nature and shape of the coastline.

Vibration Suppression for Large Scale Adaptive Truss Structures Using Direct Output Feedback Control1

In this article, the vibration control of adaptive truss structures, where the control actuation is provided by length adjustable active members, is formulated as a direct output feedback control problem. A control method named Model Truncated Output Feedback (MTOF) is presented. The method allows the control feedback gain to be determined in a decoupled and truncated modal space in which only the critical vibration modes are retained. The on-board computation required by MTOF is minimal; thus, the method is favorable for the applications of vibration control of large scale structures. The truncation of the modal space inevitably introduces spillover effect during the control process. In this article, the effect is quantified in terms of active member locations, and it is shown that the optimal placement of active members, which minimizes the spillover effect (and thus, maximizes the control performance), can be sought. The problem of optimally selecting the locations of active members is also treated.