• 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.

• Journal of Korean Association for Spatial Structures
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.73-80
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• 2021

A mid-story isolation system was proposed for seismic response reduction of high-rise buildings and presented good control performance. Control performance of a mid-story isolation system was enhanced by introducing semi-active control devices into isolation systems. Seismic response reduction capacity of a semi-active mid-story isolation system mainly depends on effect of control algorithm. AI(Artificial Intelligence)-based control algorithm was developed for control of a semi-active mid-story isolation system in this study. For this research, an practical structure of Shiodome Sumitomo building in Japan which has a mid-story isolation system was used as an example structure. An MR (magnetorheological) damper was used to make a semi-active mid-story isolation system in example model. In numerical simulation, seismic response prediction model was generated by one of supervised learning model, i.e. an RNN (Recurrent Neural Network). Deep Q-network (DQN) out of reinforcement learning algorithms was employed to develop control algorithm The numerical simulation results presented that the DQN algorithm can effectively control a semi-active mid-story isolation system resulting in successful reduction of seismic responses.

• Journal of Power System Engineering
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.53-58
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• 2004

In this paper, the semi active mount featuring Magneto rheological fluid(MR Fluid) is proposed. MR fluid is suspension of micro sized magnetizable particles in a fluid medium, and its apparent viscosity can be varied by the applied strength of magnetic field. When the controllable MR fluid is applied to mechanical devices, the devices provide simple, rapid response interfaces between electronic controls and mechanical systems. The MR fluid is applied in the conventional fluid mount for improving its performance of the mount's isolation effect. A appropriate size of the MR mount is designed and manufactured on the basis of Bingham model of MR fluid. In addition, the field dependent damping forces of MR mount are evaluated with respect to the input frequency variation.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.17 no.3_4
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• pp.557-572
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• 2004

Control systems are used to limit structural lateral deflections during large external loads such as winds and earthquakes. Most recently, the semi-active control approach has grown in popularity due to inexpensive control devices that consume little power. As a result, recently designed control systems have employed many semi-active control devices for the control of a structure. In the future, it is envisioned that structural control systems will be large-scale systems defined by high actuation and sensor densities. Decentralized control approaches have been used to control large-scale systems that are too complex for a traditional centralized approach, such as linear quadratic regulation (LQR). This paper describes the derivation of energy market-based control (EMBC), a decentralized approach that models the structural control system as a competitive marketplace. The interaction of free-market buyers and sellers result in an optimal allocation of limited control system resources such as control energy. The Kajima-Shizuoka Building and a 20-story benchmark structure are selected as illustrative examples to be used for comparison of the EMBC and centralized LQR approaches.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.1111-1123
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• 2016

The present study aims at proposing an analytical method for semi-active structural control by using block pulse functions. The performance of the resulting controlled system and the requirements of the control devices are highly dependent on the control algorithm employed. In control problems, it is important to devise an accurate analytical method with less computational expenses. Block pulse functions (BPFs) set proved to be the most fundamental and it enjoyed immense popularity in different applications in the area of numerical analysis in systems science and control. This work focused on the application of BPFs in the control algorithm concerning decrease the computational expenses. Variable orifice dampers (VODs) are one of the common semi-active devices that can be used to control the response of civil Structures during seismic loads. To prove the efficiency of the proposed method, numerical simulations for a 10-story shear building frame equipped with VODs are presented. The controlled response of the frame was compared with results obtained by controlling the frame by the classical clipped-optimal control method based on linear quadratic regulator theory. The simulation results of this investigation indicated the proposed method had an acceptable accuracy with minor computational expenses and it can be advantageous in reducing seismic responses.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.4 no.5
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• pp.667-684
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• 2008

Numerous devices exist for reducing or eliminating seismic damage to structures. These include passive dampers, semi-active dampers, and active control devices. The performance of structural systems with these devices has often been evaluated using numerical simulations. Experiments on structural systems with these devices, particularly at large-scale, are lacking. This paper describes a real-time hybrid testing facility that has been developed at the Lehigh University NEES Equipment Site. The facility enables real-time large-scale experiments to be performed on structural systems with rate-dependent devices, thereby permitting a more complete evaluation of the seismic performance of the devices and their effectiveness in seismic hazard reduction. The hardware and integrated control architecture for hybrid testing developed at the facility are presented. An application involving the use of passive elastomeric dampers in a three story moment resisting frame subjected to earthquake ground motions is presented. The experiment focused on a test structure consisting of the damper and diagonal bracing, which was coupled to a nonlinear analytical model of the remaining part of the structure (i.e., the moment resisting frame). A tracking indictor is used to track the actuator ability to achieve the command displacement during a test, enabling the quality of the test results to be assessed. An extension of the testbed to the real-time hybrid testing of smart structures with semi-active dampers is described.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.61-80
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• 2006

The concept of structural vibration control is to absorb vibration energy of the structure by introducing auxiliary devices. Various types of structural vibration control theories and devices have been recently developed and introduced into mechanical systems. One of such devices is damper employing controllable fluids such as ElectroRheological (ER) or MagnetoRheological (MR) fluids. MagnetoRheological (MR) materials are suspensions of fine magnetizable ferromagnetic particles in a non-magnetic medium exhibiting controllable rheological behaviour in the presence of an applied magnetic field. This paper presents the modelling of an MRfluid damper. The damper model is developed based on Newtonian shear flow and Bingham plastic shear flow models. The geometric parameters are varied to get the optimised damper characteristics. The numerical analysis is carried out to estimate the damping coefficient and damping force. The analytical results are compared with the experimental results. The results confirm that MR damper is one of the most promising new semi-active devices for structural vibration control.

• Journal of Korean Association for Spatial Structures
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.81-89
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• 2015

Damped outrigger systems have been proposed as a novel energy dissipation system to protect tall buildings from severe earthquakes and strong wind loads. In this study, semi-active damping devices such as magnetorheological (MR) dampers instead of passive dampers are installed vertically between the outrigger and perimeter columns to achieve large and adaptable energy dissipation. Control performance of semi-active outrigger damper system mainly depends on the control algorithm. Fuzzy logic control algorithm was used to generate command voltage sent to MR damper. Genetic algorithm was used to optimize the fuzzy logic controller. An artificial earthquake load was generated for numerical simulation. A simplified numerical model of damped outrigger system was developed. Based on numerical analyses, it has been shown that the semi-active damped outrigger system can effectively reduce both displacement and acceleration responses of the tall building in comparison with a passive outrigger damper system.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.721-747
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• 2005

The strong need of verifying theories formulated for semi-active control through applications to real structures is due to the fact that theoretical research on semi-active control systems is not matched by a corresponding satisfactory experimental activity. This paper shows how a smart system including magnetorheological devices as damping elements can be implemented in a large-scale structural model, by describing in detail the kind of electronics (dedicated hardware and software) adopted during the experimental campaign. It also describes the most interesting results in terms of reduction of the seismic response (either experimental or numerical) of the semi-actively controlled structure compared to a passive operating control system, and in terms of the evaluation criteria proposed in the benchmark for seismically excited controlled buildings. The paper also explains how to derive from the classical theory of optimal control the adopted control logic, based on a clear physical approach, and provides an exhaustive picture of the time delays characterizing the control sequence.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.55-62
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• 2004

In general, control performance of the active control system is superior to that of the passive control devices. However, the active system require a large amount of external energy to operate the actuators. Semi-active control systems maintain the reliability of the passive control systems while taking advantage of the adjustability of the active control system. In this research, a semi-active orificed fluid damper having the capacity of about 2 tons was designed and fabricated. It is a two-stage damper with normally open solenoid valve. A series of tests was performed to grasp its performance characteristics. It was also applied to a 6-story steel structure subjected to random and seismic excitations for the confirmation of its validity on structural vibration absorption.