• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.18 no.1
• /
• pp.75-92
• /
• 2016

The design of a semi-active (SA) control system addressed to mitigate wind induced structural demand to high wind turbine towers is discussed herein. Actually, the remarkable growth in height of wind turbines in the last decades, for a higher production of electricity, makes this issue pressing than ever. The main objective is limiting bending moment demand by relaxing the base restraint, without increasing the top displacement, so reducing the incidence of harmful "p-delta" effects. A variable restraint at the base, able to modify in real time its mechanical properties according to the instantaneous response of the tower, is proposed. It is made of a smooth hinge with additional elastic stiffness and variable damping respectively given by springs and SA magnetorheological (MR) dampers installed in parallel. The idea has been physically realized at the Denmark Technical University where a 1/20 scale model of a real, one hundred meters tall wind turbine has been assumed as case study for shaking table tests. A special control algorithm has been purposely designed to drive MR dampers. Starting from the results of preliminary laboratory tests, a finite element model of such structure has been calibrated so as to develop several numerical simulations addressed to calibrate the controller, i.e., to achieve as much as possible different, even conflicting, structural goals. The results are definitely encouraging, since the best configuration of the controller leaded to about 80% of reduction of base stress, as well as to about 30% of reduction of top displacement in respect to the fixed base case.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.18 no.1
• /
• pp.53-74
• /
• 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 Korean Association for Spatial Structures
• /
• v.18 no.3
• /
• pp.37-44
• /
• 2018

A base isolation system is widely used to reduce seismic responses of low-rise buildings. This system cannot be effectively applied to high-rise buildings because the initial stiffness of the high-rise building with the base isolation system maintains almost the same as the building without the base isolation system to set the yield shear force of the base isolation system larger than the design wind load. To solve this problem, the mid-story isolation system was proposed and applied to many buildings. The mid-story isolation system has two major objectives; first to reduce peak story drift and second to reduce peak drift of the isolation story. Usually, these two objectives are in conflict. In this study, a hybrid mid-story isolation system for a tall building is proposed. A MR (magnetorheological) damper was used to develop the hybrid mid-story isolation system. An existing building with mid-story isolation system, that is "Shiodome Sumitomo Building" a high rise building having a large atrium in the lower levels, was used for control performance evaluation of the hybrid mid-story isolation system. Fuzzy logic controller and genetic algorithm were used to develop the control algorithm for the hybrid mid-story isolation system. It can be seen from analytical results that the hybrid mid-story isolation system can provide better control performance than the ordinary mid-story isolation system and the design process developed in this study is useful for preliminary design of the hybrid mid-story isolation system for a tall building.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.9 no.2
• /
• pp.165-188
• /
• 2012

In the first part of the paper, the optimal design parameters for tuned liquid column dampers (TLCD) in harmonic pitching motion were investigated. The configurations in design tables include uniform and non-uniform TLCDs with cross-sectional ratios of 0.3, 0.6, 1, 2 and 3 for the design in different situations. A closed-form solution of the structural response was used for performing numerical optimization. The results from optimization indicate that the optimal structural response always occurs when the two resonant peaks along the frequency axis are equal. The optimal frequency tuning ratio, optimal head loss coefficient, the corresponding response and other useful quantities are constructed in design tables as a guideline for practitioners. As the value of the head loss coefficient is only available through experiments, in the second part of the paper, the prediction of head loss coefficients in the form of a design chart are proposed based on a series of large scale tests in pitching base motions, aiming to ease the predicament of lacking the information of head loss for those who wishes to make designs without going through experimentation. A large extent of TLCDs with cross-sectional ratios of 0.3, 0.6, 1, 2 and 3 and orifice blocking ratios ranging from 0%, 20%, 40%, 60% to 80% were inspected by means of a closed-form solution under harmonic base motion for identification. For the convenience of practical use, the corresponding empirical formulas for predicting head loss coefficients of TLCDs in relation to the cross-sectional ratio and the orifice blocking ratio were also proposed. For supplemental information to horizontal base motion, the relation of head loss values versus blocking ratios and the corresponding empirical formulas were also presented in the end.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.13 no.2
• /
• pp.177-201
• /
• 2014

With the increased size and flexibility of the tower and blades, structural vibrations are becoming a limiting factor towards the design of even larger and more powerful wind turbines. Research into the use of vibration mitigation devices in the turbine tower has been carried out but the use of dampers in the blades has yet to be investigated in detail. Mitigating vibrations will increase the design life and hence economic viability of the turbine blades and allow for continual operation with decreased downtime. The aim of this paper is to investigate the effectiveness of Semi-Active Tuned Mass Dampers (STMDs) in reducing the edgewise vibrations in the turbine blades. A frequency tracking algorithm based on the Short Time Fourier Transform (STFT) technique is used to tune the damper. A theoretical model has been developed to capture the dynamic behaviour of the blades including the coupling with the tower to accurately model the dynamics of the entire turbine structure. The resulting model consists of time dependent equations of motion and negative damping terms due to the coupling present in the system. The performances of the STMDs based vibration controller have been tested under different loading and operating conditions. Numerical analysis has shown that variation in certain parameters of the system, along with the time varying nature of the system matrices has led to the need for STMDs to allow for real-time tuning to the resonant frequencies of the system.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.13 no.2
• /
• pp.257-280
• /
• 2014

In this paper, a novel PARAllel FACtor (PARAFAC) decomposition based Blind Source Separation (BSS) algorithm is proposed for modal identification of structures equipped with tuned mass dampers. Tuned mass dampers (TMDs) are extremely effective vibration absorbers in tall flexible structures, but prone to get de-tuned due to accidental changes in structural properties, alteration in operating conditions, and incorrect design forecasts. Presence of closely spaced modes in structures coupled with TMDs renders output-only modal identification difficult. Over the last decade, second-order BSS algorithms have shown significant promise in the area of ambient modal identification. These methods employ joint diagonalization of covariance matrices of measurements to estimate the mixing matrix (mode shape coefficients) and sources (modal responses). Recently, PARAFAC BSS model has evolved as a powerful multi-linear algebra tool for decomposing an $n^{th}$ order tensor into a number of rank-1 tensors. This method is utilized in the context of modal identification in the present study. Covariance matrices of measurements at several lags are used to form a $3^{rd}$ order tensor and then PARAFAC decomposition is employed to obtain the desired number of components, comprising of modal responses and the mixing matrix. The strong uniqueness properties of PARAFAC models enable direct source separation with fine spectral resolution even in cases where the number of sensor observations is less compared to the number of target modes, i.e., the underdetermined case. This capability is exploited to separate closely spaced modes of the TMDs using partial measurements, and subsequently to estimate modal parameters. The proposed method is validated using extensive numerical studies comprising of multi-degree-of-freedom simulation models equipped with TMDs, as well as with an experimental set-up.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.23 no.4
• /
• pp.329-335
• /
• 2019

Structural fuses are made up from oriented steel plates to be used to resist seismic force with shear loading resistance capabilities. The damage and excessive inelastic deformations are concentrated in structural fuses to avoid any issues for the rest of the surrounding elements. Recently developed fuse plates are designed with engineered cutouts leaving flexural or shear links with controlled yielding features. A promising type of link is proposed to align better bending strength along the length of the link with the demand moment diagram is a butterfly-shaped link. Previously, the design methodologies are purely based on the flexural stresses, or shear stresses only, which overestimate the dampers capability for resisting against the applied loadings. This study is specifically focused on the optimized design methodologies for commonly used butterfly-shaped dampers. Numerous studies have shown that the stresses are not uniformly distributed along the length of the dampers; hence, the design methodology and the effective implementation of the steel need revisions and improvements. In this study, the effect of shear and flexural stresses on the behavior of butterfly-shaped links are computationally investigated. The mathematical models based on von-Mises yielding criteria are initially developed and the optimized design methodology is proposed based on the yielding criterion. The optimized design is refined and investigated with the aid of computational investigations in the next step. The proposed design methodology meets the needs of optimized design concepts for butterfly-shaped dampers considering the uniform stress distribution and efficient use of steel.

• Advances in concrete construction
• /
• v.13 no.5
• /
• pp.385-394
• /
• 2022

Recently, an increasing number of cutting-edged studies have shown that designing a smart active control for real-time implementation requires piles of hard-work criteria in the design process, including performance controllers to reduce the tracking errors and tolerance to external interference and measure system disturbed perturbations. This article proposes an effective artificial-intelligence method using these rigorous criteria, which can be translated into general control plants for the management of civil engineering installations. To facilitate the calculation, an efficient solution process based on linear matrix (LMI) inequality has been introduced to verify the relevance of the proposed method, and extensive simulators have been carried out for the numerical constructive model in the seismic stimulation of the active rigidity. Additionally, a fuzzy model of the neural network based system (NN) is developed using an interconnected method for LDI (linear differential) representation determined for arbitrary dynamics. This expression is constructed with a nonlinear sector which converts the nonlinear model into a multiple linear deformation of the linear model and a new state sufficient to guarantee the asymptomatic stability of the Lyapunov function of the linear matrix inequality. In the control design, we incorporated H Infinity optimized development algorithm and performance analysis stability. Finally, there is a numerical practical example with simulations to show the results. The implication results in the RMS response with as well as without tuned mass damper (TMD) of the benchmark building under the external excitation, the El-Centro Earthquake, in which it also showed the simulation using evolved bat algorithmic LMI fuzzy controllers in term of RMS in acceleration and displacement of the building.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.31 no.3
• /
• pp.259-273
• /
• 2023

Real-time hybrid simulation (RTHS) is an effective experimental technique for structural dynamic assessment. However, time delay causes displacement de-synchronization at the interface between the numerical and physical substructures, negatively affecting the accuracy and stability of RTHS. To this end, the authors have proposed a model-based adaptive control strategy with a Kalman filter (MAC-KF). In the proposed method, the time delay is mainly mitigated by a parameterized feedforward controller, which is designed using the discrete inverse model of the control plant and adjusted using the KF based on the displacement command and measurement. A feedback controller is employed to improve the robustness of the controller. The objective of this study is to further validate the power of dealing with a nonlinear control plant and to investigate the potential challenges of the proposed method through actual experiments. In particular, the effect of the order of the feedforward controller on tracking performance was numerically investigated using a nonlinear control plant; a series of actual RTHS of a frame structure equipped with a magnetorheological damper was performed using the proposed method. The findings reveal significant improvement in tracking accuracy, demonstrating that the proposed method effectively suppresses the time delay in RTHS. In addition, the parameters of the control plant are timely updated, indicating that it is feasible to estimate the control plant parameter by KF. The order of the feedforward controller has a limited effect on the control performance of the MAC-KF method, and the feedback controller is beneficial to promote the accuracy of RTHS.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.30 no.5
• /
• pp.479-500
• /
• 2022

In this study, a new type of isolation bearing is proposed by combining S-shaped steel plate dampers (SSDs) with a spherical steel bearing, and the seismic control effect of a five-span standard high-speed railway bridge is investigated. The advantages of the proposed S-shaped steel damping friction bearing (SSDFB) are that it cannot only lengthen the structural periods, dissipate the seismic energy, but also prevent bridge unseating due to the restraint effectiveness of SSDs in the large relative displacements between the girders and piers. This study first presents a detailed description and working principle of the SSDFB. Then, mechanical modeling of the SSDFB was derived to fundamentally define its cyclic behavior and obtain key mechanical parameters. The numerical model of the SSDFB's critical component SSD was verified by comparing it with the experimental results. After that, parameter studies of the dimensions and number of SSDs, the friction coefficient, and the gap length of the SSDFBs were conducted. Finally, the longitudinal seismic responses of the bridge with SSDFBs were compared with the bridge with spherical bearing and spherical bearing with strengthened shear keys. The results showed that the SSDFB can not only significantly mitigate the shear force responses and residual displacement in bridge substructures but also can effectively reduce girder displacement and prevent bridge unseating, at a cost of inelastic deformation of the SSDs, which is easy to replace. In conclusion, the SSDFB is expected to be a cost-effective option with both multi-stage energy dissipation and restraint capacity, making it particularly suitable for seismic isolation application to high-speed railway bridges.