A General Vibration Control Methodology for Human-Induced Vibrations

This paper proposes a general methodology for the design of vibration control of human-induced vibrations. This uses a feedback loop for the design of control parameters and accounts for the nature of human excitation and how humans feel the vibration. The methodology developed considers not only single-input single-output control systems but also multi-input multi-output control systems, especially useful to cancel vibrations coming from modes with closely spaced natural frequencies. The strategy finds simultaneously the optimal placements of a set of inertial mass dampers and the design parameters (control gain matrix for active vibration control, damping ratios and tuning frequencies of tuned mass dampers for passive vibration control). To make this strategy implementable and suitable to human-induced vibrations, elements such as input-output frequency weighting, output time weighting, band-pass filters, actuator dynamics, and nonlinearities are considered within the design. The proposed methodology is illustrated in an application example on a realistic open-layout floor by designing single-input single-output and multi-input multi-output active and passive strategies with one and two dampers. Simulation tests are carried out to evaluate the performance of the controllers in terms of their vibration reduction capacity using a performance index indicator