A REMOTE BRIDGE EXPERIMENT WITH VIBRATION CONTROL

In this paper, an intelligent vibrating bridge structure that utilizes two types of smart materials to, control and damp structural vibrations is presented. Structural vibration is induced by a mass imbalanced rotary motor mounted on top of an experimental bridge structure. Shape memory alloys (SMA) and magneto rheological (MR) fluid are used to increase the stiffness and the damping ratio, respectively. Two accelerometers simultaneously measure the structural vibration. The bridge experiment utilizes a specially designed electrical circuit to allow manual or computer control of the bridge structural vibration. A National Instruments (NI) LabVIEW based Virtual Instrument (VI) interface is designed to visualize the bridge vibration, SMA temperature, and drive currents of rotary motor, SMA wires and MR damper. The VI interface is also used to achieve the computer control and remote control. The potential of designed experimental bridge structure for remote engineering education is analyzed.