• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.15 no.4
• /
• pp.1103-1120
• /
• 2015

A self-sensing magnetorheological (MR) damper with embedded piezoelectric force sensor has recently been devised to facilitate real-time close-looped control of structural vibration in a simple and reliable manner. The development and characterization of the self-sensing MR damper are presented based on experimental work, which demonstrates its reliable force sensing and controllable damping capabilities. With the use of experimental data acquired under harmonic loading, a nonparametric dynamic model is formulated to portray the nonlinear behaviors of the self-sensing MR damper based on NARX modeling and neural network techniques. The Bayesian regularization is adopted in the network training procedure to eschew overfitting problem and enhance generalization. Verification results indicate that the developed NARX network model accurately describes the forward dynamics of the self-sensing MR damper and has superior prediction performance and generalization capability over a Bouc-Wen parametric model.