• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.329-344
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• 2021

The use of structural control devices to minimize structural response to seismic/dynamic excitations has attracted increased attention in recent years. The use of magnetorheological (MR) dampers as a control device have captured the attention of researchers in this field due to its flexibility, adaptability, easy control, and low power requirement compared to other control devices. However, little attention has been paid to the effect of configuration and number of dampers installed in a structure on responses reduction. This study assesses the control of a five-story structure using one and two MR dampers at different stories to determine the optimal damper positions and configurations based on performance indices. This paper also addresses the fail-safe current value to be applied to the MR damper at each floor in the event of feedback or control failure. The model is mathematically simulated in SIMULINK/MATLAB environment. Linear control strategies for current at 0 A, 0.5 A, 1 A, 1.5 A, 2 A, and 2.5 A are implemented for MR dampers, and the response of the structure to these control strategies for different configurations of dampers is compared with the uncontrolled structure. Based on the performance indices, it was concluded that the dampers should be positioned starting from the ground floor, then the 2^nd floor followed by 1^st and rest of the floors sequentially. The failsafe value of current for MR dampers located in lower floors (G+1) should be kept at a higher value compared to dampers at top floors for effective passive control of multi-story structures.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.408-417
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• 2011

The plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) are specialized hybrid electric vehicles that have the potential to obtain enough energy for average daily commuting from batteries. The PHEV battery would be recharged from the power grid at home or at work and would thus allow for a reduction in the overall fuel consumption. This paper proposes an integrated power electronics interface for PHEVs, which consists of a novel Eight-Switch Inverter (ESI) and an interleaved DC/DC converter, in order to reduce the cost, the mass and the size of the power electronics unit (PEU) with high performance at any operating mode. In the proposed configuration, a novel Eight-Switch Inverter (ESI) is able to function as a bidirectional single-phase AC/DC battery charger/ vehicle to grid (V2G) and to transfer electrical energy between the DC-link (connected to the battery) and the electric traction system as DC/AC inverter. In addition, a bidirectional-interleaved DC/DC converter with dual-loop controller is proposed for interfacing the ESI to a low-voltage battery pack in order to minimize the ripple of the battery current and to improve the efficiency of the DC system with lower inductor size. To validate the performance of the proposed configuration, the indirect field-oriented control (IFOC) based on particle swarm optimization (PSO) is proposed to optimize the efficiency of the AC drive system in PHEVs. The maximum efficiency of the motor is obtained by the evaluation of optimal rotor flux at any operating point, where the PSO is applied to evaluate the optimal flux. Moreover, an improved AC/DC controller based Proportional-Resonant Control (PRC) is proposed in order to reduce the THD of the input current in charger/V2G modes. The proposed configuration is analyzed and its performance is validated using simulated results obtained in MATLAB/ SIMULINK. Furthermore, it is experimentally validated with results obtained from the prototypes that have been developed and built in the laboratory based on TMS320F2808 DSP.