Intelligent adaptive control of the vehicle-span/track system

This paper presents the strategy of semi-active damping of vibrations of a beam span subjected to a moving load. Intermediate supports as controlled dampers significantly decrease transverse displacements in comparison with a system with permanently active dampers. The gain can reach 40% in the case of high speed loads. In a real structure with a load moving at 3m/s, considered in this paper, the improvement is about 10%. The control is determined by a minimization procedure. Numerical simulations are confirmed experimentally on a stand with a length of 4m. Controlled dampers can be replaced with an intelligent material. The potential applications are in transport or robotics. •Semi-active damping of vibrations of a beam span subjected to a moving load is proposed.•Periodically acting dampers are more efficient than permanently acting ones.•The gain can reach 40% in the case of high speed loads.•Analytical and numerical simulations are confirmed experimentally on a stand with a length of 4m.