• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.185-204
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• 2005

Variations in system parameters due to uncertainties may result in system performance deterioration. Uncertainties in modeling of structures are often considered to ensure that control system is robust with respect to response errors. Hence, the uncertain concept plays an important role in vibration control of the engineering structures. The paper discusses the robustness of the stability of vibration control systems with uncertain parameters. The vibration control problem of an uncertain system is approximated by a deterministic one. The uncertain parameters are described by interval variables. The uncertain state matrix is constructed directly using system physical parameters and avoided to use bounds in Euclidean norm. The feedback gain matrix is determined based on the deterministic systems, and then it is applied to the actual uncertain systems. A method to calculate the upper and lower bounds of eigenvalues of the close-loop system with uncertain parameters is presented. The lower bounds of eigenvalues can be used to estimate the robustness of the stability the controlled system with uncertain parameters. Two numerical examples are given to illustrate the applications of the present approach.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.3 no.6
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• pp.805-820
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• 2012

An enhanced and efficient methodology is proposed for evaluating the robustness of an uncertain structure with passive dampers. Although the structural performance for seismic loads is an important design criterion in earthquake-prone countries, the structural parameters such as storey stiffnesses and damping coefficients of passive dampers are uncertain due to various factors or sources, e.g. initial manufacturing errors, material deterioration, temperature dependence. The concept of robust building design under such uncertain structural-parameter environment may be one of the most challenging issues to be tackled recently. By applying the proposed method of interval analysis and robustness evaluation for predicting the response variability accurately, the robustness of a passively controlled structure can be evaluated efficiently in terms of the so-called robustness function. An application is presented of the robustness function to the design and evaluation of passive damper systems.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.599-613
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• 2006

A method for the dynamical analysis of FE discretized uncertain linear and nonlinear structures is presented. This method is based on the moment equation approach, for which the differential equations governing the response first and second-order statistical moments must be solved. It is shown that they require the cross-moments between the response and the random variables characterizing the structural uncertainties, whose governing equations determine an infinite hierarchy. As a consequence, a closure scheme must be applied even if the structure is linear. In this sense the proposed approach is approximated even for the linear system. For nonlinear systems the closure schemes are also necessary in order to treat the nonlinearities. The complete set of equations obtained by this procedure is shown to be linear if the structure is linear. The application of this procedure to some simple examples has shown its high level of accuracy, if compared with other classical approaches, such as the perturbation method, even for low levels of closures.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.327-340
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• 2003

Variations in system parameters due to uncertainties of parameters may result in system performance deterioration and create system internal stability problems. Uncertainties in structural modeling of structures are often considered to ensure that the control system is robust with respect to response errors. So the uncertain concept plays an important role in the analysis and design of the engineering structures. In this paper, the active control of the intelligent structures with the uncertainties is studied and a new method for analyzing the robustness of systems with the uncertainties is presented. Firstly, the system with uncertain parameters is considered as the perturbation of the system with deterministic parameters. Secondly, the feedback control law is designed on the basis of deterministic system. Thirdly, perturbation analysis and robustness analysis of intelligent structures with uncertainties are discussed when the feedback control law is applied to the original system and perturbed system. Combining the convex model of uncertainties with the finite element method, the analysis theory of the robustness of intelligent structures with the uncertainties can be developed. The description and computation of the robustness of intelligent structures with uncertain parameters is obtained. Finally, a numerical example of the application of the present method is given to show the validity of the method.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.279-295
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• 2011

This paper develops a probabilistic methodology for the seismic reliability analysis of structures with random properties. The earthquake loading is assumed to be described in terms of response spectra. The proposed methodology takes advantage of the response spectra and thus does not require explicit dynamic analysis of the actual structure. Uncertainties in the structural properties (e.g. member cross-sections, modulus of elasticity, member strengths, mass and damping) as well as in the seismic load (due to uncertainty associated with the earthquake load specification) are considered. The structural reliability is estimated by determining the failure probability or the reliability index associated with a performance function that defines safe and unsafe domains. The structural failure is estimated using a performance function that evaluates whether the maximum displacement has been exceeded. Numerical illustrations of reliability analysis of elastic and elastic-plastic single-story frame structures are presented first. The extension of the proposed method to elastic multi-degree-of-freedom uncertain structures is also studied and a solved example is provided.

• Interaction and multiscale mechanics
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.103-121
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• 2008

This paper presents an optimization-based method for computing a minimal bounding ellipsoid that contains the set of static responses of an uncertain braced frame. Based on a non-stochastic modeling of uncertainty, we assume that the parameters both of brace stiffnesses and external forces are uncertain but bounded. A brace member represents the sum of the stiffness of the actual brace and the contributions of some non-structural elements, and hence we assume that the axial stiffness of each brace is uncertain. By using the $\mathcal{S}$-lemma, we formulate a semidefinite programming (SDP) problem which provides an outer approximation of the minimal bounding ellipsoid. The minimum bounding ellipsoids are computed for a braced frame under several uncertain circumstances.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.86 no.2
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• pp.249-260
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• 2023

The uncertainties involved in structural performances are of importance when the optimum number and property of seismic retrofit devices are determined. This paper proposes a seismic retrofit design framework for asymmetric soft-first-story buildings, considering uncertainties in the soil condition and seismic retrofit device. The effect of the uncertain parameters on the structural performance is used to find a robust and optimal seismic retrofit solution. The framework finds a robust and optimal seismic retrofit solution by finding the optimal locations and mechanical properties of the seismic retrofit device for different realizations of the uncertain parameters. The structural performance for each realization is computed to evaluate the effect of the uncertainty parameters on the seismic performance. The framework utilizes parallel processing to decrease the computationally intensive nonlinear dynamic analysis time. The framework returns a robust design solution that satisfies the given limit state for every realization of the uncertain parameters. The proposed framework is applied to the seismic retrofit design of a five-story asymmetric soft-first-story case study structure retrofitted with a viscoelastic damper. Robust optimal parameters for retrofitting a structure to satisfy the limit state for the different realizations of the uncertain parameter are found using the proposed framework. According to the performance evaluation results of the retrofitted structure, the developed framework is proved effective in the seismic retrofit of the asymmetric structure with inherent uncertainties.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.489-504
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• 2008

In piezoelectric flexible structures, the contribution of vibration modes to the dynamic response of system may change with the location of piezoelectric actuator patches, which means that the ability of actuators to control vibration modes should be taken into account in the development of modal reduction model. The spatial $H_2$ norm of modes, which serves as a measure of the intensity of modes to system dynamical response, is used to pick up the modes included in the reduction model. Based on the reduction model, the paper develops the state-space representation for uncertain flexible tructures with piezoelectric material as non-collocated actuators/sensors in the modal space, taking into account uncertainties due to modal parameters variation and unmodeled residual modes. In order to suppress the vibration of the structure, a dynamic output feedback control law is designed by imultaneously considering the conflicting performance specifications, such as robust stability, transient response requirement, disturbance rejection, actuator saturation constraints. Based on linear matrix inequality, the vibration control design is converted into a linear convex optimization problem. The simulation results show how the influence of vibration modes on the dynamical response of structure varies with the location of piezoelectric actuators, why the uncertainties should be considered in the reductiom model to avoid exciting high-frequency modes in the non-collcated vibration control, and the possiblity that the conflicting performance specifications are dealt with simultaneously.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.163-178
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• 2007

In practical engineering, the uncertain concept plays an important role in the control problems of the vibration structures. In this paper, based on matrix perturbation theory and interval finite element method, the closed-loop vibration control system with uncertain parameters is discussed. A new method is presented to develop an algorithm to estimate the upper and lower bounds of the real parts and imaginary parts of the complex eigenvalues of vibration control systems. The results are derived in terms of physical parameters. The present method is implemented for a vibration control system of the frame structure. To show the validity and effectiveness, we compare the numerical results obtained by the present method with those obtained by the classical random perturbation.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.138-144
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• 2000

Robot manipulators, which are nonlinear structures and have uncertain system parameters, have complex in dynamics when are operated in unknown environment. To compensate for estimate errors of the uncertain system parameters and to accomplish the desired trajectory tracking, nonlinear robust controllers are appropriate. However, when estimation errors or tracking errors are large, they require large input torques, which may not be satisfied due to torque limits of actuators. As a result, their stability can not be guaranteed. In this paper, a new robust control scheme is presented to solve stability problem and to achieve fast trajectory tracking in the presence of torque limits. By using fuzzy logic, new desired trajectories which can be reduced are generated based on the initial desired trajectory, and torques of the robust controller are regulated to not exceed torque limits. Numerical examples are shown to validate the proposed controller using an uncertain two degree-of-freedom underwater robot manipulator.