An active control logic to improve the fatigue strength of smart flexible structures

In general active vibration control intrinsically implies a fatigue damage reduction. Anyway, this assumption is not always verified. In these cases it is possible to deeper investigate the fatigue phenomena on smart flexible structures and their reduction from a control point of view. In this article, to identify the problem main parameters, a simplified interpretation of fatigue damage is given using the frequency analysis framework. Then, the active control logic is defined as an optimization problem with a quadratic functional taking into account the previously cited parameters. Finally, because of non-linearity of fatigue phenomenon, an adaptive approach is applied and a numerical/experimental validation is carried out. © 2013 SPIE.