Decentralized control of vibration with active smart dampers

Active vibration suppression can be profitably implemented on large structures to enhance their performance (eg. comfort, fatigue life, etc.). Application on large structures, however, often require a complex setup that makes these solutions too complex to be effectively used. That is because of the high number of sensors and actuators, suitably cabled, in addition to all the devices necessary to condition and amplify the signals of measurement and control and to execute in real time the control algorithms synthesized. One of the most effective technique to reach this goal is to increase the equivalent damping of the system and then the dissipation of the kinetic energy (the so called skyhook damping technique). This work is aimed to simplify this setup by using stand-alone smart dampers developed to carry out operations of vibration control in an autonomous way, thus containing an actuator, the sensors needed to evaluate the vibratory state of the structure, and a micro-controller embedding different control algorithm. The paper shows that the use of more devices, each working independently to perform a decentralized control, can be profitably used to better suppress vibration of the structure