• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.831-846
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• 2015

Magneto-Rheological (MR) dampers are being used increasingly because of their adaptability to control algorithms and reliability of passive systems. In this paper, an extensive investigation on performance of MR dampers in semi-active and passive modes has been carried out. It is observed that the overall energy dissipation by MR dampers in passive-on modes is higher than that in semi-active modes for most of the competitive semi-active controllers. Based on the energy dissipation pattern, a novel semi-active controller, termed as "Simple Passive Semi-Active Controller", has been proposed for MR dampers. This controller can be emulated by a simple passive hardware proposed in this paper. The proposed concept of controller "hardware emulation" is innovative and can also be implemented for other semi-active devices for control algorithms of certain form. The effectiveness and reliability of the proposed controller has been investigated extensively through numerical simulations. It has been demonstrated that the proposed controller is competitive to or more effective than other widely used / investigated semi-active controllers.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.493-515
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• 2008

Semi-active control systems have attracted a great deal of attention in recent years because these systems can operate on battery power alone, proving advantageous during seismic events when the main power source of the structure may likely fail. The behavior of semi-active devices is often highly non-linear and requires suitable and efficient control algorithm. This paper presents the comparative study and performance of variable semi-active friction dampers by using recently proposed predictive control law with direct output feedback. In this control law, the variable slip force of semi-active variable friction damper is kept slightly lower than the critical friction force, which allows the damper to remain in the slip state during an earthquake, resulting in improved energy dissipation capability. This control algorithm is able to produce a continuous and smooth slip forces for a variable friction damper. The numerical examples include a structure controlled with multiple variable semi-active friction dampers and with multiple passive friction dampers. A parameter, gain multiplier defined as the ratio of damper force to critical damper control force, is investigated under four different real earthquake ground motions, which plays an important role in the present control algorithm of the damper. The numerically evaluated optimum parametric value is considered for the analysis of the structure with dampers. The numerical results of the variable friction dampers show better performance over the passive dampers in reducing the seismic response of structures.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.243-250
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• 2002

Semi-active control devices have received significant attention in recent Years because they offer the adaptability of active-control devices without requiring the associated large power sources. Magnetorheological(MR) dampers are semiactive control devices that use MR fluids to produce controllable dampers. This paper applies sliding mode control method using target variation rate of Lyapunov function for the control of structures by use of MR dampers. The three-story building model under earthquake excitation is analyzed by installing a MR damper in the first-story. The performance of semi-active controllers designed by clipped-optimal algorithm and modified sliding mode control algorithm is compared to the performance of passive-type MR dampers. The results indicate that semi-active controllers achieve a greater reduction of responses than passive-type system and especially the controller by modified sliding mode control method shows a good applicability in the view of response control and control force.

• Computational Structural Engineering : An International Journal
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.61-68
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• 2003

A recently developed semi-active control system employing magneto-rheological (MR) fluid dampers is applied to vibration control of a wind excited tall building. The semi-active control system with MR fluid dampers appears to have the reliability of passive control devices and the adaptability of fully active control systems. The system requires only small power source, which is critical during severe events, when the main power source may fail. Numerical simulation studies are performed to demonstrate the efficiency of the MR dampers on the third ASCE benchmark problem. Multiple MR dampers are assumed to be installed in the 76-story building. Genetic algorithm is applied to determine the optimal locations and capacities of the MR dampers. Clipped optimal controller is designed to control the MR dampers based on the acceleration feedback. To verify the robustness with respect to the variation of the external wind force, several cases with different wind forces are considered in the numerical simulation. Simulation results show that the semi-actively controlled MR dampers can effectively reduce both the peak and RMS responses the tall building under various wind force conditions. The control performance of the MR dampers for wind is found to be fairly similar to the performance of an active tuned mass damper.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 1997.10a
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• pp.191-194
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• 1997

Passive, semi-active and active dampers have been used to dissipate energy in mechanical systems. Semi-active dampers have higher performance than passive dampers and require lower power to operate than active dampers. Its damping characteristics can be changed appropriately for varying conditions. In this paper, we developed a semi-active damper based on Magnetorheological(MR) fluid. MR fluid has a variable damping characteristics proportional for the magnetic field intensity. It has several advantages such as high strength, low viscosity, robustness in impurities and wide temperature range of operational stability. We designed a constrained rotary MR damper base on valve mode which can dissipate more energy per unit volume. The system with Bingham characteristics is obtained and proved by the experiment.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.181-195
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• 2010

Coupled building control is a viable method to protect tall buildings from seismic excitation. In this study, the semi-active control of a building complex is investigated for mitigating seismic responses. The building complex is formed of one main building and one podium structure connected through Magneto-Rheological (MR) Dampers and Tuned Mass Damper. The conventional semi-active control techniques require a primary controller as a reference to determine the desired control force, and modulate the input voltage of the MR damper by comparing the desired control force. The fuzzy logic directly determines the input voltage of an MR damper from the response of the MR damper. The control performance of the proposed fuzzy control technique for the MR damper is evaluated for the control problem of a seismically-excited building complex. In this paper, a building complex that include a 14-story main building and an 8-story podium structure is applied as a numerical example to demonstrate the effectiveness of semi-active control with Magneto-Rheological dampers and its comparison with the passive control with the Tuned Mass Damper and two uncoupled buildings and hybrid semi-active control including the Tuned Mass Damper and Magneto-Rheological dampers while they are subject to the earthquake excitation. The numerical results show that semi-active control and hybrid semi-active control can significantly mitigate the seismic responses of both buildings, such as displacement and shear force responses, and fuzzy control technique can effectively mitigate the seismic response of the building complex.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.69-79
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• 2009

A non-clipped semi-active stochastic optimal control strategy for nonlinear structural systems with MR dampers is developed based on the stochastic averaging method and stochastic dynamical programming principle. A nonlinear stochastic control structure is first modeled as a semi-actively controlled, stochastically excited and dissipated Hamiltonian system. The control force of an MR damper is separated into passive and semi-active parts. The passive control force components, coupled in structural mode space, are incorporated in the drift coefficients by directly using the stochastic averaging method. Then the stochastic dynamical programming principle is applied to establish a dynamical programming equation, from which the semi-active optimal control law is determined and implementable by MR dampers without clipping in terms of the Bingham model. Under the condition on the control performance function given in section 3, the expressions of nonlinear and linear non-clipped semi-active optimal control force components are obtained as well as the non-clipped semi-active LQG control force, and thus the value function and semi-active nonlinear optimal control force are actually existent according to the developed strategy. An example of the controlled stochastic hysteretic column is given to illustrate the application and effectiveness of the developed semi-active optimal control strategy.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.2 no.6
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• pp.117-126
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• 1994

This paper deals with a robust semi-active control algorithm which is applicable to a semi-active suspension with a multi-state damper. Since the controllable damping rates are discrete in case of a multi-state semi-active damper, the desired damping rate can not be produced exactly even if force-velocity relations of a multi-state semi-active damper is completely known. In addition, damping characteristics of the semi-active dampers are different from damper to damper. A robust nonlinear control law based on sliding control is developed. The main objective of the proposed control strategies is to improve ride quality by tracking the desired active force with a multi-state damper of which the force-velocity relations are "not" completely known. The performance of th proposed semi-active control law is numerically compared to those of the control law based on a bilinear model and a passive suspension. The proposed control algorithm is robust to nonlinear characteristics and uncertainty of the force-Velocity relations of multi-state dampers.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.69-79
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• 2011

This paper proposes a GA-based optimal fuzzy control technique for the vibration control of earthquakeexcited adjacent structures interconnected with semi-active magneto-rheological(MR) dampers. Rule-based fuzzy logic controllers are designed first by implementing heuristic knowledge and the genetic algorithm(GA) is then introduced to optimally tune the fuzzy controllers for enhancing the seismic performance of semi-active control system. For practical implementation, the fuzzy controller simply uses locally measured responses of the dampers involved and directly returns the input voltage to the magneto-rheological dampers in real time through the fuzzy inference mechanism. The local measurement based fuzzy controller provides optimal damping force in a decentralized manner so that it does not require a primary central controller unlike the conventional semi-active control techniques. As a result, it can avoid the unbridgeable discrepancy between the desired control force and the actual damper force that may occur in the conventional control approaches. The validity and effectiveness of the proposed control method are shown numerically on two 20-story earthquake-excited buildings interconnected with MR dampers.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
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• 2006.03a
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• pp.424-431
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• 2006

Many types of tuned mass dampers (TMDs), such as active TMDs, multiple TMDs, hybrid TMDs etc., have been studied to effectively reduce the dynamic responses of a structure subjected to various types of dynamic loads. In this study, we replace a passive damper by a semi-active tuned mass damper to improve the control performance of conventional TMDs (STMD). An idealized variable damping device is used as semi-active dampers. These semi-active dampers can change the properties of TMDs in real time based on the dynamic responses of a structure. The control performance of STMD is investigated with respect to various types of excitation by numerical simulation. Groundhook control algorithm is used to appropriately modulate the damping force of semi-active dampers. The control effectiveness between STMD and a conventional passive TMD, both under harmonic and random excitations, is evaluated and compared for a single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) structure. Excitations are applied to the structure as a dynamic force and ground motion, respectively. The numerical studies showed that the control effectiveness of STMD is significantly superior to that of the passive TMD, regardless of the type of excitations.