Analysis of Practical Application Aspects for an Active Control Strategy to Civil Engineering Structures

Last years have brought the use of information technology in all domains. For Civil Engineering, the Smart City concept, involving the new technologies, is pointing to (among other aspects) the community safety. In this line, a structural active control strategy based on full states LQR optimal control has been relatively recent improved, numerically tested and verified. In order to apply this newer strategy, practical aspects are in the views of the present work as reduced order controller in two versions and their consequences on the effectiveness of the control strategy. The numerical simulations are performed on a multi-story building loaded by strong earthquakes’ recorded accelerations. Using in-house software under Matlab, the seismic response of the structures is simulated and evaluated after introduction of Active Tuned Mass dampers. Time and frequency domain responses are obtained. The viability of the improved strategy involving application of practical considerations is determined and discussed.