Vibration Mitigation of Structural Suspension Using Active Mount

Active vibration control is the most effective method used for suppressing vibrations from external sources. This paper presents the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm to search about the optimum feedback controller gains for the active mount suspension, for the first time, to reduce the vibrations level of a structural system. It consists of vibrating mass and flexible beam subjected to an external disturbance. A mathematical model and the equations of motion of the structure system with an active mount suspension are simulated using Matlab/Simulink software. The active controller was designed to control the first three modes of the structure. The proposed PSO algorithm aims to minimize the acceleration of the suspended mass as the objective function with constraint of the actuator force. Vibrations level is examined theoretically in order to assess the effectiveness of the proposed controller. The simulation results reveal that the proposed feedback controller gains tuned by PSO algorithm offer a significant improvement of the vibrations isolation compared with both the passive system and the active system controlled using the linear-quadratic-regulator (LQR).