The ultimate goal of this project is the development of advanced semi-active and regenerative control strategies for civil engineering applications. In order for such control technologies to gain wider acceptance by practitioners in civil engineering, it must first be shown that the investment associated with the design and installation of such devices is justified by consistent improvement in structural reliability, in comparison to simpler and less costly systems. The results of this research provide a rigorous method by which controllers may be designed for optimal reliability during extreme seismic events. Thus, the fundamental contribution of this work is a controller design tool which yields a clear assessment of the "best possible" reliability achievable with a given control device, as well as the control law which achieves it. The exploratory research proposed herein constitutes the first step toward a full research investigation in this area.
The controller design methodologies developed in this research differ from other existing approaches in that they incorporate reliability assessment directly into the control system design optimization. This new approach represents a significant step toward understanding of the extent to which these mechatronic systems may be used to enhance the reliability of structures. Because of the fundamentally nonlinear nature of this problem, the mathematics are formidable. This research is also the first study to simultaneously treat semi-active and regenerative systems in a unified, analytical framework.
The development of a systematic reliability-based foundation for evaluation of the performance of semi-active and regenerative control systems opens the door for application of this technology to many new areas. This will lead to improved control strategies for a wide range of systems for which reliability is of importance. This research will provide a basis for quantitatively evaluating the benefits of use of structural response control taking into account economic considerations. The results of this research will also lead to fundamental changes in the way structural analysis and control is understood taught in civil engineering courses, thereby leading to greater integration of mechatronics into this field.
