• 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.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.6 no.8
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• pp.953-974
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• 2010

The performance of variable dampers for seismic protection of the benchmark highway bridge (phase I) under six real earthquake ground motions is presented. A simplified lumped mass finite-element model of the 91/5 highway bridge in Southern California is used for the investigation. A variable damper, developed from magnetorheological (MR) damper is used as a semi-active control device and its effectiveness with friction force schemes is investigated. A velocity-dependent damping model of variable damper is used. The effects of friction damping of the variable damper on the seismic response of the bridge are examined by taking different values of friction force, step-coefficient and transitional velocity of the damper. The seismic responses with variable dampers are compared with the corresponding uncontrolled case, and controlled by alternate sample control strategies. The results of investigation clearly indicate that the base shear, base moment and mid-span displacement are substantially reduced. In particular, the reduction in the bearing displacement is quite significant. The friction and the two-step friction force schemes of variable damper are found to be quite effective in reducing the peak response quantities of the bridge to a level similar to or better than that of the sample passive, semi-active and active controllers.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.648-654
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• 2007

This paper presents the result of a comparison study to evaluate the performance of several semi-active control algorithms for use with large-scale MR damper applied to a building structure under seismic excitation using real-time hybrid test method. Recently, a variety of semi-active control algorithm studies are developed and generally evaluated the performance by using numerical analysis. In this paper real-time hybrid test method was applied to performance evaluating of semi-active control algorithms including a clipped optimal algorithm and the modulated homogeneous friction algorithm.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.4 no.6
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• pp.741-757
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• 2008

The research field of structural control has evolved from the development of passive devices since 1970s, through the intensive investigation on active systems in 1980s, to the recent studies of semi-active control systems in 1990s. Currently semi-active control is considered most promising in civil engineering applications. However, actual implementation of semi-active devices is still limited due mainly to their system maintenance and associated long-term reliability as a result of power requirement. In this paper, the concept of functionally upgraded passive devices is introduced to streamline some of the state-of-the-art researches and guide the development of new passive devices that can mimic the function of their corresponding semi-active control devices for various applications. The general characteristics of this special group of passive devices are discussed and representative examples are summarized. Their superior performances are illustrated with cyclic and shake table tests of two example devices: mass-variable tuned liquid damper and friction-pendulum bearing with a variable sliding surface curvature.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.9 no.1 s.41
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• pp.61-70
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• 2005

Shaking table tests are carried out on a single-degree-of-freedom mass that is equipped with a hybrid base isolation system. The isolator consists of a set of four specially-designed friction pendulum systems (FPS) and a magnetorheological (MR) damper. The structure and its hybrid isolation system are subjected to various intensities of near- and far-fault earthquakes on a large shake table. The proposed fuzzy controller uses feedback from displacement or acceleration transducers attached to the structure to modulate resistance of the semi-active damper to motion. Results from several types of passive and semi-active control strategies are summarized and compared. The study shows that a combination of FPS isolators and an adjustable MR damper can effectively provide robust control of vibration for a large full-scale structure undergoing a wide variety of seismic loads.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.17 no.3_4
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• pp.539-556
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• 2004

In this paper, the design, fabrication and characterization of a piezoelectric friction damper are presented. It was sized with the proposed practical procedure to minimize the story drift and floor acceleration of an existing 1/4-scale, three-story frame structure under both near-fault and far-field earthquakes. The design operation friction force in kip was numerically determined to range from 2.2 to 3.3 times the value of the peak ground acceleration in g (gravitational acceleration). Experimental results indicated that the load-displacement loop of the damper is nearly rectangular in shape and independent of the excitation frequency. The coefficient of friction of the damper is approximately 0.85 when the clamping force on the damper is above 400 lbs. It was found that the friction force variation of the damper generated by piezoelectric actuators with 1000 Volts is approximately 90% of the expected value. The properties of the damper are insensitive to its ambient temperature and remain almost the same after being tested for more than 12,000 cycles.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
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• 2006.03a
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• pp.511-518
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• 2006

In this study, seismic response mitigation effect of an MR damper generating response-dependent frictional force is investigated. It has been reported in previous studies that passively operated MR damper with constant input current doesn't show better control performance than semi-active MR damper with varying input current calculated by control algorithms such as linear quadratic regulator and sliding mode control. However, in order to operate the MR damper semi-actively, other control systems besides the damper itself such as sensors for measuring structural responses and controller for calculating optimal input current are necessary, which deteriorate the economical efficiency. This study presents a MR damper generating frictional force of which magnitude is controlled in accordance to the displacement and velocity transferred to the damper. Numerical analyses results indicate that the performance of the response dependent MR damper is closely related with the range of the friction force and it can be designed to short better control performance than the passive MR damper.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.255-262
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• 2008

In this study, seismic response control performance of decentralized response-dependent MR damper which generates the control force using only the response of damper-installed floor, was experimentally investigated through the tests of a full-scale structure installed with large MR dampers. The performance of the decentralized control algorithm was compared to those of the centralized ones such as Lyapunov, modulated homogeneous friction, and clipped-optimal control. Hybrid mass damper were controlled to induce seismic response of the full-scale structure under El Centro earthquake. Experimental results indicated that the proposed decentralized MR damper provided superior or equivalent performance to centralized one in spite of using damper-installed floor response for calculating input voltage to MR damper.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.4 no.5
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• pp.697-710
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• 2008

Long steel stay cables, which are mainly used in cable-stayed bridges, are easy to vibrate because of their low inherent damping characteristics. A lot of methods for vibration reduction of stay cables have been developed, and several techniques of them have been implemented to real structures, though each has its limitations. Recently, it was reported that smart (i.e. semi-active) dampers can potentially achieve performance levels nearly the same as comparable active devices with few of the detractions. Some numerical and experimental studies on the application of smart damping systems employing an MR fluid damper, which is one of the most promising smart dampers, to a stay cable were carried out; however, most of the previous studies considered only one specific control algorithm in which they are interested. In this study, the performance verification of MR fluid damper-based smart damping systems for mitigating vibration of stay cables by considering the four commonly used semi-active control algorithms, such as the control algorithm based on Lyapunov stability theory, the maximum energy dissipation algorithm, the modulated homogeneous friction algorithm and the clipped-optimal control algorithm, is systematically carried out to find the most appropriate control strategy for the cable-damper system.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.501-524
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• 2011

Recent studies have discovered that a conventional passive isolation system may suffer from an excessive isolator displacement when subjected to a near-fault earthquake that usually has a long-period velocity pulse waveform. Semi-active isolation using variable friction dampers (VFD), which requires a suitable control law, may provide a solution to this problem. To control the VFD in a semi-active isolation system more efficiently, this paper investigates experimentally the possible use of a control law whose control logic is similar to that of the anti-lock braking systems (ABS) widely used in the automobile industry. This ABS-type controller has the advantages of being simple and easily implemented, because it only requires the measurement of the isolation-layer velocity and does not require system modeling for gain design. Most importantly, it does not interfere with the isolation period, which usually decides the isolation efficiency. In order to verify its feasibility and effectiveness, the ABS-type controller was implemented on a variable-friction isolation system whose slip force is regulated by an embedded piezoelectric actuator, and a seismic simulation test was conducted for this isolation system. The experimental results demonstrate that, as compared to a passive isolation system with various levels of added damping, the semi-active isolation system using the ABS-type controller has the better overall performance when both the far-field and the near-fault earthquakes with different PGA levels are considered.