An Overview of Active Structural Control under Seismic Loads

The concept of active structural control as a means of structural protection against seismic loads, developed over the last 20 years, has received considerable attention in recent years. It has now reached the stage where active systems have been installed in full-scale structures. It is the purpose of this paper to provide an overview of this development with special emphasis placed on laboratory experiments using model structures and on full-scale implementation of some active control systems. Included in this paper is a report on the formation of a U.S. Panel on Structural Control Research and some discussion on possible future research directions in this exciting research area.