IMPLEMENTATION ISSUES AND TESTING OF A HYBRID SLIDING ISOLATION SYSTEM

Structural control systems can effectively protect structures from dyn amic loads, Passive control systems are widely accepted, but active an d hybrid systems remain under development with a variety of implementa tion related issues yet to be resolved, The current research focuses o n overcoming some of these problems, A hybrid sliding isolation system is considered, This nonlinear controller is ideal for examining many practical issues; moreover, results obtained with this system may be a pplied to a variety of active and hybrid controllers, New nonlinear co ntrol algorithms, which account for implementation imperfections, are developed and validated with realistic experimental models, The result s show that the control system is able to significantly reduce the pea k responses and the energy input, proving that many of the implementat ion issues may be overcome with well designed controllers and current technology. (C) 1997 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.