Transient Simulation of Adaptive Structures

This paper examines an approach used to design adaptive systems by means of Rapid-Prototyping on the basis of a simulation. The vibration behavior of mechanical systems including actuators, sensors, and an adaptive controller in the time domain will be modeled. This approach includes the calculation of the dynamic behavior of the mechanical structure with the help of the Finite Element Method (FEM). The FE model of the mechanical structure is transformed into modal space, then reduced and embedded as a state-space model in the MATLAB/Simulink environment. Thereby, a simple mechanical problem is solved analytically with the FEM as well as with the reduced MATLAB model. The comparison of the results shows a good agreement. Actuators and sensors are attached to the mechanical structure. Based on the resulting dynamical behavior of the mechanical structure, an adaptive control algorithm for the reduction of structural vibration is developed. Experimental tests are performed to verify and update the simulations. The hardware-in-the-loop simulations are carried out with a dSpace system. Some differences (with respect to speed-up, precision) between this simulation and other methods are presented later in the paper. This procedure allows the development and the evaluation of more complex adaptive mechanical structures.