Decentralized energy-to-peak control of building structures subject to parametric uncertainties

This paper proposes an energy-to-peak (ETP) decentralized control strategy for vibration mitigation of building structures under seismic excitation. By employing a large-scale system decoupling approach, the building system is divided into multiple subsystems, and the interactions between them are treated as external disturbances. The dynamic equations of the uncertain system are formulated, explicitly incorporating structural parameter uncertainties into the controller design. An ETP state feedback controller for the uncertain system is derived using the linear matrix inequality (LMI) method. This guarantees the robust stability of the closed-loop system against parameter variations. The proposed method is numerically validated on a 20-story building structure with parameter uncertainties under seismic excitation, and its control performance is compared with that of a centralized control strategy. The results demonstrate that the decentralized control strategy effectively suppresses structural dynamic responses and maintains consistent performance despite structural parameter variations, achieving performance comparable to that of the centralized approach. Cross-validation across different structural models and seismic excitations, along with sensitivity analyses of key controller parameters, are also carried out to confirm the reliability of the design.