Robustness of the Active Rotary Inertia Driver System for Structural Swing Vibration Control Subjected to Multi-Type Hazard Excitations

Featured Application The presented active control system aims to suppress the swing vibrations of suspended structures, e.g., a crane ship hook and suspension bridge deck; bending vibrations of super tall structures and towers; three rotary motions of offshore platforms or ships; and any dynamic system with rotational or rotary vibration or motion components. Abstract In traditional structural disaster prevention design, the effects of various disasters on structures are usually considered separately, and the effects of multi-type hazards are rarely considered. The traditional Tuned Mass Damper (TMD) and Active Mass Damper/Driver (AMD) are ineffective for the control of swing vibration. The Tuned Rotary Inertia Damper (TRID) system has the problems of being ineffective under multi-type hazard excitation and exhibiting a limited robustness. The Active Rotary Inertia Driver (ARID) system is proposed to solve these problems and the robustness of such an active control system is investigated in this paper. Firstly, the equations of motion corresponding to the in-plane swing vibration of the suspended structure with the ARID/TRID system are established. The control algorithm for the ARID system is designed based on the Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR) algorithm. Next, numerical analyses carried out using Simulink are presented. Then, numerical analyses and experimental investigations corresponding to five working conditions, i.e., free vibration, forced vibration, sweep excitation, earthquake excitation, and sea wave excitation, are introduced. Lastly, the numerical analyses and experimental results of the ARID system, and numerical results of the TRID system, are compared to demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of the ARID control system. It can be concluded that the ARID system is effective and feasible in structural swing vibration control and it exhibits a better control robustness than the TRID system. Furthermore, the feasibility of applying the ARID control system to multi-type hazard excitations is validated.