Active Control of Nonlinear Oscillations in Bridges

Abstract

In this paper, the nonlinear oscillations of a hinged‐hinged single‐span bridge due to midplane stretching is controlled by a combined active and passive control mechanism. The passive control enables one to shift to a certain extent the bridge natural frequencies away from resonant frequencies. In the presence of the difficulty of shifting the natural frequencies away from any expected resonant frequency, the active control provides an active damping that limits the peak amplitude and improves the oscillation response. It is shown how to design the parameters of the control mechanism that eliminate the nonlinear effects on the response of the structure. The control mechanism used is a king‐post truss tendon mechanism.