8th ASCE Specialty Conference on Probabilistic Mechanics and Structural Reliability PMC2000-296MODEL PREDICTIVE CONTROL FOR WIND AND EARTHQUAKE APPLICATIONS

In this paper, a general concept of the Model Predictive Control (MPC) scheme is introduced and applied to reduce the wind and earthquake-excited building response. The MPC scheme is based on an explicit use of a prediction model of the system to obtain the control action by minimizing an objective function. Optimiza-tion objectives include minimization of the difference between the predicted and desired response, and the control effort subject to certain constraints. Advantages of MPC include simplicity, on-line real-time opera-tion and consideration of constraints which make it a unique and an attractive control scheme for full-scale structural control applications. In this paper an example of the application of MPC for a 76 story building under wind excitation used for a benchmark study is presented. Some of the practical constraints such as a limitation on the magnitude of the control force are considered in the design of controller. The other applica-tion of the MPC scheme shown here concerns the control of earthquake induced structural response. A sig-nificant feature of MPC entails the real-time control of buildings under earthquakes. Applications of MPC are immediate for other load effects, e.g., wave loads