Y. G. Tsuei

Estimation of Mass, Stiffness and Damping Matrices from Frequency Response Functions

A frequency-domain method for estimating the mass, stiffness and damping matrices of the model of a structure is presented. The developed method is based on our previous work on the extraction of normal modes from the complex modes of a structure. A transformation matrix is obtained from the relationship between the complex and the normal frequency response functions ofa structure. The transformation matrix is employed to calculate the damping matrix of the system. The mass and the stiffness matrices are identified from the normal frequency response functions by using the least squares method. Two simulated systems are employed to illustrate the applicability of the proposed method. The results indicate that the damping matrix can be identified accurately by the proposed method. The reason for the good results is that the damping matrix is identified independently from the mass and the stiffness matrices. In addition, the robustness of the new approach to uniformly distributed measurement noise is also addressed.

Adaptive Control of Above Knee Electro-Hydraulic Prosthesis

Conventional designs of an above-knee prosthesis are based on mechanisms with mechanical properties (such as friction, spring and damping coefficients) that remain constant during changing cadence. These designs are unable to replace natural legs due to the lack of active knee joint control. Since the nonlinear and time-varying dynamic coupling between the thigh and the prosthetic limb is high during swing phase, an adaptive control is employed to control the knee joint motion. Two dimensional simulation indicates that the adaptive controller can improve the appearance of gait pattern. It is adaptable to walking speed and can compensate for the variations of hip moment, hip trajectory and toe-off conditions.

Experimental study on vibration of a rotating blade

The vibration of a rotating blade is investigated in this work. A rotor system is built and natural frequencies of the rotating blade are measured and compared with the numerical results from a finite element analysis. The experimental setup has a strain-gage-based telemetry system and a piezoelectric shaker that rotates with the rotor. The finite element model of the beam is derived based on the Timoshenko beam theory. The effects of varying rotating speeds and stagger angles on the blade natural frequencies are studied. The results indicate that the natural frequencies calculated from the finite element model and the experimental values are in good agreement. It is found that the blade natural frequencies increase with the rotating speed in a nonlinear way. The effects of the stagger angle on the measured natural frequencies are not clear.

Comparison of fuzzy logic and self-tuning adaptive control of single-link flexible arm

Abstract A single-link flexible arm is controlled by a control system which has two feedback loops: a PID loop to control the motor shaft position and the other loop to regulate the tip point vibration by either a fuzzy logic control or a self-tuning regulator. The two designs are compared based on the energy consumption, the steady-state error and the adaptation to payload changes. Experimental results indicate that the fuzzy logic controller is more robust to payload changes and to impulsive disturbances than the self-tuning regulator. Although the steady-state error of the self-tuning regulator is smaller, the fuzzy controller is a better vibration controller for the flexible arm.

Extraction of Normal Modes from Contaminated Measurement With Noise for Highly Coupled Structures

A frequency-domain technique to extract the normal mode shapes from the contaminated FRF measurements for highly coupled structures is developed. The relation between the complex FRFs and the normal mode shapes is derived. It is found that the normal mode shape cannot be extracted exactly from the complex mode shape. However, an exact relation between the normal mode shape and the complex FRF does exist. In the present method, only the magnitude and phase data at the undamped natural frequencies are utilized to extract the normal mode shapes. Hence, the effects of measurement noise can be reduced. A numerical example is employed to illustrate the applicability of the technique. The results indicate that this technique can successfully extract the normal modes from the noisy frequency response functions of a highly coupled structure.

Experimental Study on Vibration of a Rotating Blade

The vibration of a rotating blade is investigated in this work. A rotor system is built and natural frequencies of the rotating blade are measured and compared with the numerical results from a finite element analysis. The experimental setup has a strain gage-based telemetry system and a piezoelectric shaker that rotates with the rotor. The finite element model of the beam is derived based on the Timoshenko beam theory. The effects of varying rotating speeds and stagger angles on the blade natural frequencies are studied. The results indicate that the natural frequencies calculated from the finite element model and the experimental values are in good agreement. It is found that the blade natural frequencies increase with the rotating speed in a nonlinear linear way. The effects of the stagger angle on the measured natural frequencies are not clear.Copyright