Optimal Placement of Actuators for Structural Control

Keywords: Structural Control, Dynamic Response, Response Performance, and Seismic Response.

Abstract: It is believed that in the application of structural control to seismic structures, certain locations are advantageous for placement of the actuators. The term, optimal actuators placement, reflects upon the reduction of the structure's response while using the minimum control effort. By varying the location of the actuators and the amount of control force exerted by each controller, different dynamic responses are obtained in the simulation. Two methods for selecting these optimal locations included in a previous report by the authors are integrated. The first method utilizes the minimization of a control energy performance index. The second method uses a minimum response performance index as the criterion. A new method is proposed which uses an empirical procedure to find the optimal locations by maximizing a controllability performance index. Using modal responses and earthquake spectra, optimal locations are determined by selecting floors with a maximum optimal locations index. The three methods are compared and simulation studies are carried out using various earthquake records.