Structural vibration attenuation using a fractional order PD controller designed for a fractional order process

Structural vibration is a highly studied topic, especially in civil structures. Unwanted earth vibrations during seismic activity endanger life and often destroy buildings. In this paper, a Fractional Order Proportional Derivative controller is designed with the purpose of vibration mitigation in a three-story building. The experimental setup consists of a third floor building equipped with an active pendulum attached to the last floor. The controller is designed for the fractional order mathematical approximation of the structure by imposing frequency domain constraints such as gain crossover frequency, phase margin and robustness to gain variations. The validity of the controller is analyzed considering the simulated behavior of the compensated building to the El Centro earthquake and experimental disturbance rejection performance.