Modal predictive control of structures. I: Formulation

In this and a companion paper, a methodology for implementation of modal predictive control of structures is described. Predictive control is formulated, within an independent modal space control (IMSC) approach, for the control of each individual mode. In this paper, the ability of the predictive control strategy to provide stable and efficient control actions for every individual mode is numerically assessed. Two kinds of analyses have been carried out. The first analysis is a “plain assessment” that assumes all the elements in the control loop operate under ideal conditions and that there are no discrepancies between the parameters of the control loop and their values considered in the control algorithm. The second analysis is a “robustness assessment” without such assumptions. As a conclusion, criteria are given to choose the values of the parameters of the predictive control algorithm according to the modal characteristics of the structure and other parameters involved in the control loop. The results are used in the companion paper for implementation on multi-degrees-of-freedom systems.