• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.62 no.2
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• pp.197-208
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• 2017

Among various retrofitting strategies, use of semi-active control for retrofitting a building structure has gained momentum in recent years. One of the techniques for such retrofitting is to connect a weaker building to an adjacent stronger building by semi-active devices, so that performances of a weaker building are significantly improved for seismic forces. In this paper, a ten storey weaker building is connected to an adjacent stronger building using magneto-rheological (MR) dampers, for primarily improving the performance of the weaker building in terms of displacement, drift and base shear. For this, a fuzzy logic controller is specifically developed by fuzzyfying the responses of the coupled system. The performance of the control strategy is compared with the passive-on and passive-off controls. Pounding Mitigation between the two buildings is also investigated using all three control strategies. The results show that there exists a fundamental frequency ratio between the two buildings for which maximum control of the weaker building response takes place with no penalty on the stronger building. There exists also a fundamental frequency ratio where control of the weaker building response is achieved at the expense of the amplification of the stronger building. However, coupling strategy always improves the possibility of pounding mitigation.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.53-74
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• 2016

This paper presents an experimental study on constructing a tunable secondary suspension for high-speed trains using magneto-rheological fluid dampers (referred to as MR dampers hereafter), in the interest of improving lateral ride comfort. Two types of MR dampers (type-A and type-B) with different control ranges are designed and fabricated. The developed dampers are incorporated into a secondary suspension of a full-scale high-speed train carriage for rolling-vibration tests. The integrated rail vehicle runs at a series of speeds from 40 to 380 km/h and with different current inputs to the MR dampers. The dynamic performance of the two suspension systems and the ride comfort rating of the rail vehicle are evaluated using the accelerations measured during the tests. In this way, the effectiveness of the developed MR dampers for attenuating vibration is assessed. The type-A MR dampers function like a stiffness component, rather than an energy dissipative device, during the tests with different running speeds. While, the type-B MR dampers exhibit significant damping and high current input to the dampers may adversely affect the ride comfort. As part of an ongoing investigation on devising an effective MR secondary suspension for lateral vibration suppression, this preliminary study provides an insight into dynamic behavior of high-speed train secondary suspensions and unique full-scale experimental data for optimal design of MR dampers suitable for high-speed rail applications.

• Journal of Power System Engineering
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.26-32
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• 2009

This study is about roll characteristics evaluation to show the advantage of using MR(magneto-rheological) dampers for steering of a SUV(sports utility vehicle). Roll characteristics is very important to observe the roll-propensity of the SUV. ADAMS/Car program was used to simulate the basic steering motion, using 63 D.O.F. vehicle model. Sky-Hook and Ground-Hook control algorithms were used as a semi-active suspension system controller. The roll characteristics from the steering motion were compared between the simulation results from the semi-active suspension system and the passive suspension system.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.445-455
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• 2013

A new linearization model for MR dampers is analyzed. The nonlinear hysteretic damping force model of MR damper can be modeled as a hyperbolic tangent function of currents, positions, and velicities, which is an algebraic function with constant parameters. Model parameters can be identified with numerical method using experimental force-velocity-position data obtained from various operating conditions. The nonlinear hysteretic damping force can be linearized with a given slope of damping coefficient if there exist corresponding currents to compensate for the nonlinearity. The corresponding currents can be calculated from the inverse model when the given linear damping force is set equal to the nonlinear hysteretic damping force. The linearization controller is realized in a DSP controller such that the corresponding currents to satisfy a given damping coefficient should be calculated. Experiments show that the current inputs to the MR damper produce linearized damping force with a given slope of the damping coefficient.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.65-71
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• 2017

This work presents a comparative work on the ride comfort of a quarter car suspension system between two different magneto-rheological (MR) dampers; one is conventional type without bypass hole and the other is featured by several bypass holes in the piston. As a first step, two different MR dampers are designed on the basis of the governing equation and manufactured with same geometric dimensions except the bypass holes. After investigating the field-dependent damping properties, two dampers are installed to the quarter car suspension system. The suspension model is then derived and a sky-hook controller is implemented to identify vibration control performance under random road. It is shown that the suspension system with MR damper featured by the bypass holes can provide much better ride quality than the case without the bypass holes. This is validated via experimental implementation.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.261-277
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• 2009

A fuzzy-sliding mode controller is presented to control the dynamics of semi-active suspension systems of vehicles using magneto-rheological (MR) fluid dampers. A full car model is used to design and evaluate the performance of the proposed semi-active controlled suspension system. Four mixed mode MR dampers are designed, manufactured, and integrated with four independent sliding mode controllers. The siding mode controller is designed to decrease the energy consumption and maintain robustness. In order to overcome the chattering of the sliding mode controllers, a fuzzy logic control strategy is merged into the sliding mode controller. The proposed fuzzy-sliding mode controller is designed and fabricated. The performance of the semi-active suspensions is evaluated in both the time and frequency domains. The obtained results demonstrate that the proposed fuzzy-sliding mode controller can effectively suppress the vibration of vehicles and improve their ride comfort and handling stability. Furthermore, it is shown that the "chattering" of the sliding mode controller is smoothed when it is integrated with a fuzzy logic control strategy. Although the cost function of the fuzzy-sliding mode control is a slightly higher than that of a classical LQR controller, the control effectiveness and robustness are enhanced considerably.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.557-572
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• 2012

This paper focuses on the vibration control of long-span reticulated steel structures under multi-dimensional earthquake excitation. The control system and strategy are constructed based on Magneto-Rheological (MR) dampers. The LQR and Hrovat controlling algorithm is adopted to determine optimal MR damping force, while the modified Bingham model (MBM) and inverse neural network (INN) is proposed to solve the real-time controlling current. Three typical long-span reticulated structural systems are detailedly analyzed, including the double-layer cylindrical reticulated shell, single-layer spherical reticulated shell, and cable suspended arch-truss structure. Results show that the proposed control strategy can reduce the displacement and acceleration effectively for three typical structural systems. The displacement control effect under the earthquake excitation with different PGA is similar, while for the cable suspended arch-truss, the acceleration control effect increase distinctly with the earthquake excitation intensity. Moreover, for the cable suspended arch-truss, the strand stress variation can also be effectively reduced by the MR dampers, which is very important for this kind of structure to ensure that the cable would not be destroyed or relaxed.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.807-833
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• 2015

While tuned mass dampers are found to be effective in suppressing vibration in a tall building, integrating it with a semi-active control system enables it to perform more efficiently. In this paper a forty-story tall steel-frame building designed according to the Canadian standard, has been studied with and without semi-active and passive tuned mass dampers. The building is assumed to be located in the Vancouver, Canada. A magneto-rheological fluid based semi-active tuned mass damper has been optimally designed to suppress the vibration of the structure against seismic excitation, and an appropriate control procedure has been implemented to optimize the building's semi-active tuned mass system to reduce the seismic response. Furthermore, the control system parameters have been adjusted to yield the maximum reduction in the structural displacements at different floor levels. The response of the structure has been studied with a variety of ground motions with low, medium and high frequency contents to investigate the performance of the semi-active tuned mass damper in comparison to that of a passive tuned mass damper. It has been shown that the semi-active control system modifies structural response more effectively than the classic passive tuned mass damper in both mitigation of maximum displacement and reduction of the settling time of the building.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.58 no.6
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• pp.1127-1143
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• 2016

The pounding phenomenon in adjacent structures happens in severing earthquakes that can cause great damages. Connecting neighboring structures with active and semi-active control devices is an effective method to avoid mutual colliding between neighboring buildings. One of the most important issues in control systems is applying online control force. There will be a time delay if the prose of producing control force does not perform on time. This paper proposed a time-delay compensation method in coupled structures control, with semi-active Magnetorheological (MR) damper. This method based on Newmark's integration is adopted to mitigate the time-delay effect. In this study, Lyapunov's direct approach is employed to compute demanded voltage for MR dampers. Using Lyapunov's direct algorithm guarantees the system stability to design a controller based on feedback. Because of the strong nonlinearity of MR dampers, the equation of motion of coupled structures becomes an involved equation, and it is impossible to solve it with the common time step methods. In present paper modified Newmark-Beta integration based on the instantaneous optimal control algorithm, used to solve the involved equation. In this method, the response of a coupled system estimated base on optimal control force. Two MDOF structures with different degrees of freedom are finally considered as a numeric example. The numerical results show, the Newmark compensation is an efficient method to decrease the negative effect of time delay in coupled systems; furthermore, instantaneous optimal control algorithm can estimate the response of structures suitable.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.131-141
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• 2019

Structural control systems have uncertainties in their structural parameters and control devices which by using reliability analysis, uncertainty can be modeled. In this paper, reliability of controlled structures equipped with semi-active Magneto-Rheological (MR) dampers is investigated. For this purpose, at first, the effect of the structural parameters and damper parameters on the reliability of the seismic responses are evaluated. Then, the reliability of MR damper force is considered for expected levels of performance. For sensitivity analysis of the parameters exist in Bouc- Wen model for predicting the damper force, the importance vector is utilized. The improved first-order reliability method (FORM), is used to reliability analysis. As a case study, an 11-story shear building equipped with 3 MR dampers is selected and numerically obtained experimental data of a 1000 kN MR damper is assumed to study the reliability of the MR damper performance for expected levels. The results show that the standard deviation of random variables affects structural reliability as an uncertainty factor. Thus, the effect of uncertainty existed in the structural model parameters on the reliability of the structure is more than the uncertainty in the damper parameters. Also, the reliability analysis of the MR damper performance show that to achieve the highest levels of nominal capacity of the damper, the probability of failure is greatly increased. Furthermore, by using sensitivity analysis, the Bouc-Wen model parameters which have great importance in predicting damper force can be identified.