• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• 제13권2호
• /
• pp.219-233
• /
• 2014

In a companion paper, Pasala and Nagarajaiah analytically and experimentally validate the Adaptive Length Pendulum Smart Tuned Mass Damper (ALP-STMD) on a primary structure (2 story steel structure) whose frequencies are time invariant (Pasala and Nagarajaiah 2012). In this paper, the ALP-STMD effectiveness on a primary structure whose frequencies are time varying is studied experimentally. This study experimentally validates the ability of an ALP-STMD to adequately control a structural system in the presence of real time changes in primary stiffness that are detected by a real time observer based system identification. The experiments implement the newly developed Adaptive Length Pendulum Smart Tuned Mass Damper (ALP-STMD) which was first introduced and developed by Nagarajaiah (2009), Nagarajaiah and Pasala (2010) and Nagarajaiah et al. (2010). The ALP-STMD employs a mass pendulum of variable length which can be tuned in real time to the parameters of the system using sensor feedback. The tuning action is made possible by applying a current to a shape memory alloy wire changing the effective length that supports the damper mass assembly in real time. Once a stiffness change in the structural system is detected by an open loop observer, the ALP-STMD is re-tuned to the modified system parameters which successfully reduce the response of the primary system. Significant performance improvement is illustrated for the stiffness modified system, which undergoes the re-tuning adaptation, when compared to the stiffness modified system without adaptive re-tuning.

• Tribology and Lubricants
• /
• 제30권4호
• /
• pp.234-239
• /
• 2014

Magneto-rheological elastomer (MR elastomer) is a smart material, because it has mechanical properties that change under a magnetic field. An MR elastomer changes its stiffness characteristics when the inner particles (iron particles) align along the direction of a magnetic field. There has been much research to make use of this characteristic to control vibration issues in various mechanical systems, such as for mounting systems in the automotive field, home appliances, etc. Furthermore, the friction and wear properties of MR elastomer have been studied, as these relate to the durability of the material needed to meet engineering requirements. Rolling friction (or rolling resistance) is one of these friction properties, but has not yet been studied in the context of MR elastomers. In this study, an MR elastomer is fabricated in the shape of a hollow cylinder to evaluate the rolling friction characteristic under a magnetic field. The test apparatus is setup and a strain gauge is used to calculate the rolling resistance under test conditions. Permanent magnets are used to supply the magnetic field during tests. The load and rolling speed conditions are also considered for the tests. The test results show that rolling friction characteristic has a different trend under different magnetic field, load, and rolling speed conditions. It is assumed that the stiffness change of an MR elastomer under a magnetic field has an effect on the rolling friction characteristic of the MR elastomer. For the future work, the rolling friction characteristics of MR elastomers will be controlled by adjusting the strength of the magnetic field using electromagnets.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• 제33권6호
• /
• pp.891-906
• /
• 2019

This study considers the instability behavior of sandwich plates considering magnetorheological (MR) fluid core and piezoelectric reinforced facesheets. As facesheets at the top and bottom of structure have piezoelectric properties they are subjected to 3D electric field therefore they can be used as actuator and sensor, respectively and in order to control the vibration responses and loss factor of the structure a proportional-derivative (PD) controller is applied. Furthermore, Halpin-Tsai model is used to determine the material properties of facesheets which are reinforced by graphene platelets (GPLs). Moreover, because the core has magnetic property, it is exposed to magnetic field. In addition, Kelvin-Voigt theory is applied to calculate the structural damping of the piezoelectric layers. In order to consider environmental forces applied to structure, the visco-Pasternak model is assumed. In order to consider the mechanical behavior of structure, sinusoidal shear deformation theory (SSDT) is assumed and Hamilton's principle according to piezoelasticity theory is employed to calculate motion equations and these equations are solved based on differential cubature method (DCM) to obtain the vibration and modal loss factor of the structure subsequently. The effect of different factors such as GPLs distribution, dimensions of structure, electro-magnetic field, damping of structure, viscoelastic environment and boundary conditions of the structure on the vibration and loss factor of the system are considered. In order to indicate the accuracy of the obtained results, the results are validated with other published work. It is concluded from results that exposing magnetic field to the MR fluid core has positive effect on the behavior of the system.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• 제18권1호
• /
• pp.1-16
• /
• 2016

Model Order Reduction (MOR) denotes the theory by which one tries to catch a model of order lower than that of the real model. This is conveniently pursued in view of the design of an efficient structural control scheme, just passive within this paper. When the nonlinear response of the reference structural system affects the nature of the reduced model, making it dependent on the visited subset of the input-output space, standard MOR techniques do not apply. The mathematical theory offers some specific alternatives, which however involve a degree of sophistication unjustified in the presence of a few localized nonlinearities. This paper suggests applying standard MOR to the linear parts of the structural system, the interface remaining the original unreduced nonlinear components. A case study focused on the effects of a helicopter land crash is used to exemplify the proposal.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• 제31권1호
• /
• pp.89-100
• /
• 2023

This paper conducts a parametric study of a new tuned mass damper with pre-strained superelastic SMA helical springs (SMAS-TMD) on the vibration reduction effect. First, a force-displacement relation model of superelastic SMA helical spring is presented based on the multilinear constitutive model of SMA material, and the tension tests of the six SMA springs fabricated are implemented to validate the mechanical model. Then, a dynamic model of a single floor steel frame with the SMAS-TMD damper is set up to simulate the seismic responses of the frame, which are testified by the shaking table tests. The wire diameter, initial coil diameter, number of coils and pre-strain length of SMA springs are extracted to investigate their influences on the seismic response reduction of the frame. The numerical and experimental results show that, under different earthquakes, when the wire diameter, initial coil diameter and number of coils are set to the appropriate values so that the initial elastic stiffness of the SMA spring is between 0.37 and 0.58 times of classic TMD stiffness, the maximum reduction ratios of the proposed damper can reach 40% as the mass ratio is 2.34%. Meanwhile, when the pre-strain length of SMA spring is in a suitable range, the SMAS-TMD damper can also achieve very good vibration reduction performance. The vibration reduction performance of the SMAS-TMD damper is generally equal to or better than that of the classic optimal TMD, and the proposed damper effectively suppresses the detuning phenomena that often occurs in the classic TMD.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• 제19권1호
• /
• pp.57-66
• /
• 2017

Nanocomposites reinforced with carbon nanotube fibers exhibit greater stiffness, strength and damping properties in comparison to conventional composites reinforced with carbon/glass fibers. Consequently, most of the nanocomposite research is focused in understanding the dynamic characteristics, which are highly useful in applications such as vibration control and energy harvesting. It has been observed that those nanocomposites show better stiffness when the geometry of nanotubes is straight as compared to curvilinear although nanotube agglomeration may exist. In this work the damping behavior of the nanocomposite is characterized in terms of loss factor under the presence of nanotube agglomerations. A micro stick-slip damping model is used to compute the damping properties of the nanocomposites with multiwall carbon nanotubes. The present formulation considers the slippage between the interface of the matrix and the nanotubes as well as the slippage between the interlayers in the nanotubes. The nanotube agglomerations model is also presented. Results are computed based on the loss factor expressed in terms of strain amplitude and nanotube agglomerations. The results show that although-among the various factors such as the material properties (moduli of nanotubes and polymer matrix) and the geometric properties (number of nanotubes, volume fraction of nanotubes, and critical interfacial shear stresses), the agglomeration of nanotubes significantly influences the damping properties of the nanocomposites. Therefore the full potential of nanocomposites to be used for damping applications needs to be analyzed under the influence of nanotube agglomerations.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• 제29권2호
• /
• pp.361-374
• /
• 2022

As civil infrastructure has continued to age worldwide, its structural integrity has been threatened owing to material deteriorations and continual loadings from the external environment. Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) has emerged as a cost-efficient method for ensuring structural safety and durability. As SHM research has gradually addressed an increasing number of structure-related problems, it has become difficult to understand the changing research topic trends. Although previous review papers have analyzed research trends on specific SHM topics, these studies have faced challenges in providing (1) consistent insights regarding macroscopic SHM research trends, (2) empirical evidence for research topic changes in overall SHM fields, and (3) methodological validations for the insights. To overcome these challenges, this study proposes a framework tailored to capturing the trends of research topics in SHM through a bibliometric and network analysis. The framework is applied to track SHM research topics over 15 years by identifying both quantitative and relational changes in the author keywords provided from representative SHM journals. The results of this study confirm that overall SHM research has become diversified and multi-disciplinary. Especially, the rapidly growing research topics are tightly related to applying machine learning and computer vision techniques to solve SHM-related issues. In addition, the research topic network indicates that damage detection and vibration control have been both steadily and actively studied in SHM research.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• 제23권5호
• /
• pp.449-466
• /
• 2019

Cable-stayed bridges are attractive due to their beauty, reducing material consumption, less harm to the environment and so on, in comparison with other kinds of bridges. As a massive structure with long period and low damping (0.3 to 2%) under many dynamic loads, these bridges are susceptible to fatigue, serviceability disorder, damage or even collapse. Tuned Mass Damper (TMD) is a suitable controlling system to reduce the vibrations and prevent the threats in such bridges. In this paper, Multi Tuned Mass Damper (MTMD) system is added to the Ahvaz cable stayed Bridge in Iran, to reduce its seismic vibrations. First, the bridge is modeled in SAP2000 followed with result verification. Dead and live loads and the moving loads have been assigned to the bridge. Then the finite element model is developed in OpenSees, with the goal of running a nonlinear time-history analysis. Three far-field and three near-field earthquake records are imposed to the model after scaling to the PGA of 0.25 g, 0.4 g, 0.55 g and 0.7 g. Two MTMD systems, passive and active, with the number of TMDs from 1 to 8, are placed in specific points of the main span of bridge, adding a total mass ratio of 1 to 10% to the bridge. The parameters of the TMDs are optimized using Genetic Algorithm (GA). Also, the optimum force for active control is achieved by Fuzzy Logic Control (FLC). The results showed that the maximum displacement of the center of the bridge main span reduced 33% and 48% respectively by adding passive and active MTMD systems. The RMS of displacement reduced 37% and 47%, the velocity 36% and 42% and also the base shear in pylons, 27% and 47%, respectively by adding passive and active systems, in the best cases.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
• /
• 제25권2호
• /
• pp.167-175
• /
• 2021

Far-infrared rays (FIR) are known to have various effects on atoms and molecular structures within cells owing to their radiation and vibration frequencies. The present study examined the effects of FIR on gene expression related to glucose transport through microarray analysis in rat skeletal muscle cells, as well as on mitochondrial biogenesis, at high and low glucose conditions. FIR were emitted from a bio-active material coated fabric (BMCF). L6 cells were treated with 30% BMCF for 24 h in medium containing 25 or 5.5 mM glucose, and changes in the expression of glucose transporter genes were determined. The expression of GLUT3 (Slc2a3) increased 2.0-fold (p < 0.05) under 5.5 mM glucose and 30% BMCF. In addition, mitochondrial oxygen consumption and membrane potential (ΔΨm) increased 1.5- and 3.4-fold (p < 0.05 and p < 0.001), respectively, but no significant change in expression of Pgc-1a, a regulator of mitochondrial biogenesis, was observed in 24 h. To analyze the relationship between GLUT3 expression and mitochondrial biogenesis under FIR, GLUT3 was down-modulated by siRNA for 72 h. As a result, the ΔΨm of the GLUT3 siRNA-treated cells increased 3.0-fold (p < 0.001), whereas that of the control group increased 4.6-fold (p < 0.001). Moreover, Pgc-1a expression increased upon 30% BMCF treatment for 72 h; an effect that was more pronounced in the presence of GLUT3. These results suggest that FIR may hold therapeutic potential for improving glucose metabolism and mitochondrial function in metabolic diseases associated with insufficient glucose supply, such as type 2 diabetes.

• Tribology and Lubricants
• /
• 제31권2호
• /
• pp.62-68
• /
• 2015

A magnetorheological (MR) fluid is a smart material whose rheological behavior can be controlled by varying the parameters of the applied magnetic field. Because the damping force and shear force of an MR fluid can be controlled using a magnetic field, it is widely employed in many industrial applications, such as in vehicle vibration control, powertrains, high-precision grinding processes, valves, and seals. However, the characteristics of friction caused by iron particles inside the MR fluid need to be understood and improved so that it can be used in practical applications. Surface process technologies such as polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) coatings and diamond-like carbon (DLC) coatings are widely used to improve the surface friction properties. This study examines the friction characteristics of an MR fluid with different surface process technologies such as PTFE coatings and DLC coatings, by using a reciprocating friction tester. The coefficients of friction are in the following descending order: MR fluid without any coating, MR fluid with a DLC coating, and MR fluid with a PTFE coating. Scanning electron microscopy is used to observe the worn surfaces before and after the experiment. In addition, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy is used to analyze the chemical composition of the worn surface. Through a comparison of the results, the friction characteristics of the MR fluid based on the different coating technologies are analyzed.