• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.479-487
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• 2017

Frictional dampers are used in structural engineering as means of passive control. Meanwhile, frictional damper shave a disadvantage compared to viscous rivals since the slippage force must be exceeded to activate the device, and cannot be ideal full range of possible events. The concept of semi-active control is utilized to overcome this shortcoming. In this paper, a new semi-active frictional damper called Smart Adjustable Frictional (SAF) damper is introduced. SAF damper consists of hydraulic, electronic units and sensors which are all linked with an active control discipline. SAF acts as a smart damper which can adapt its slippage threshold during a dynamic excitation by measuring and controlling the structural response. The novelty of this damper is, while it controls the response of the structure in real time with acceptable time delay. The paper also reports on the results of a series of experiments which have been performed on SAF dampers to obtain their prescribed hysteretic behavior for various control algorithms. The results show that SAF can produce the desired slippage load of various algorithms in real time. Numerical models incorporating control simulations are also made to obtain the hysteretic response of the system which agrees closely with test results.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.45 no.5
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• pp.683-695
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• 2022

Conventional braces are often used to provide stiffness to structures; however due to buckling they cannot be used as seismic energy dissipating elements. In this study, a seismic energy dissipation device is proposed which is comprised of a bracing member and a steel hysteretic damper made of steel hexagonal plates. The hexagonal shaped designated fuse causes formation of plastic hinges under axial deformation of the brace. The main advantages of this damper compared to conventional metallic dampers and buckling-restrained braces are the stable and controlled energy dissipation capability with ease of manufacture. The mechanical behavior of the damper is formulated first and a design procedure is provided. Next, the theoretical formulation and the efficiency of the damper are verified using finite element (FE) analyses. An analytical model of the damper is established and its efficiency is further investigated by applying it to seismic retrofit of a case study structure. The seismic performance of the structure is evaluated before and after retrofit in terms of maximum interstory drift ratio, top story displacement, residual displacement, and energy dissipation of dampers. Overall, the median of maximum interstory drift ratios is reduced from 3.8% to 1.6% and the residual displacement decreased in the x-direction which corresponds to the predominant mode shape of the structure. The analysis results show that the developed damper can provide cost-effective seismic protection of structures.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.50 no.6
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• pp.721-734
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• 2024

In this research, the efficiency of a metallic energy dissipation device for seismic retrofit of an existing structure is evaluated by cyclic loading test. The proposed device, which is called multi-slit damper, is made of weak and strong slit dampers connected in series. Its energy dissipation mechanism consists of two stages: (i) yielding of the weak-slit damper under minor earthquakes; (ii) restraint of further deformations of the weak slit damper and activation of the strong slit damper under major earthquakes using a gap mechanism. A reinforced concrete (RC) frame with characteristics similar to soft-first-story structures is tested under cyclic loading before and after retrofit using the proposed device. The details of the experimental study are described and the test is simulated in an available commercial software to validate the analytical model of the damper. To further verify the applicability of the damper, it is applied to an analysis model of a 4-story structure with soft first story and its seismic performance is evaluated before and after retrofit. The experimental and analysis results show that the multi-slit damper is effective in controlling seismic response of structures.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.209-224
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• 2006

The use of smart dampers to optimally control the response of structures is on the increase. To maximize the potential use of such damper systems, their accurate modeling and assessment of their performance is of vital interest. In this study, the performance of a controllable fluid dashpot damper, in terms of damper forces, damper dynamic range and damping force hysteretic loops, respectively, is studied mathematically. The study employs a damper Bingham-Maxwell (BingMax) model whose mathematical formulation is developed using a Fourier series technique. The technique treats this one-dimensional Navier-Stokes's momentum equation as a linear superposition of initial-boundary value problems (IBVPs): boundary conditions, viscous term, constant Direct Current (DC) induced fluid plug and fluid inertial term. To hold the formulation applicable, the DC current level to the damper is supplied as discrete constants. The formulation and subsequent simulation are validated with experimental results of a commercially available magneto rheological (MR) dashpot damper (Lord model No's RD-1005-3) subjected to a sinusoidal stroke motion using a 'SCHENK' material testing machine in the Materials Laboratory at the University of Technology, Sydney.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.373-388
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• 2019

This study proposes a new concept of an axial damper using the combination of shape memory alloy (SMA), friction devices, and polyurethane springs. Although there are many kinds of dampers to limit the damages, large residual deformation may happen and it causes much repairing cost for restoring the structure to the initial position. Also in some of the dampers, a special technology for assembling and fabricating is needed. One of the most important advantages of this damper is the ability to remove all the residual deformation using SMA plates and simple assembling without any special technology to fabricate. In this paper, four different dampers (in presence or omission of friction devices and polyurethane springs) are investigated. All four cases are analyzed in ABAQUS platform under cyclic loadings. In addition, the SMA plates are replaced by steel ones in four cases, and the results are compared to the SMA dampers. The results show that the axial polyurethane friction (APF) damper could decrease the residual deformation effectively. Also, the damper capacity and dissipated energy could be improved. The analysis showed that APF damper is a good recentering damper with a large amount of energy dissipation and capacity, among others.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
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• 2006.03a
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• pp.453-460
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• 2006

Stay cables, such as used in cable-stayed bridges, are prone to vibration due to their low inherent damping characteristics. Recently some studies have shown that active and semiactive control system using MR damper can potentially achieve both higher performance levels than passive control system and adaptability with few of the detractions. However, a control system including a power supply, controller, and sensors is required to maximize the performance of the MR damper and this complicated control system is not effective to most of large civil structures. This paper proposes a smart complex damping system which consists of toggle system and MR dampers by introducing electromagnetic induction(EMI) system as an external power source to MR damper. The performance of the proposed damping device has been compared with that of the passive-type control systems employing a MR damper, a linear viscous damper, and EMI system.

• Journal of Korean Association for Spatial Structures
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.37-45
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• 2013

Reduction of microvibration is regarded as important in high-technology facilities with high precision equipments. In this paper, smart control technology is used to improve the microvibration control performance. Mr damper is used to make a smart base isolation system amd fuzzy logic control algorithm is employed to appropriately control the MR damper. In order to develop optimal fuzzy control algorithm, a multi-objective genetic algorithm is used in this study. As an excitation, a train-induced ground acceleration is used for time history analysis and three-story example building structure is employed. Microvibration control performance of passive and smart base isolation systems have been investigated in this study. Numerical simulation results show that the multi-objective genetic algorithm can provide optimal fuzzy logic controllers for smart base isolation system and the smart control system can effectively reduce microvibration of a high-technology facility subjected to train-induced excitation.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.1 no.3
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• pp.235-256
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• 2005

The non-linear behaviour of electrorheological (ER) and magnetorheological (MR) dampers makes it difficult to design effective control strategies, and as a consequence a wide range of control systems have been proposed in the literature. These previous studies have not always compared the performance to equivalent passive systems, alternative control designs, or idealised active systems. As a result it is often impossible to compare the performance of different smart damper control strategies. This article provides some insight into the relative performance of two MR damper control strategies: on/off control and feedback linearisation. The performance of both strategies is benchmarked against ideal passive, semi-active and fully active damping. The study relies upon a previously developed model of an MR damper, which in this work is validated experimentally under closed-loop conditions with a broadband mechanical excitation. Two vibration isolation case studies are investigated: a single-degree-of-freedom mass-isolator, and a two-degree-of-freedom system that represents a vehicle suspension system. In both cases, a variety of broadband mechanical excitations are used and the results analysed in the frequency domain. It is shown that although on/off control is more straightforward to implement, its performance is worse than the feedback linearisation strategy, and can be extremely sensitive to the excitation conditions.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.9 no.1 s.41
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• pp.51-59
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• 2005

Magnetorheological(MR) dampers are one of the most promising semi active control devices, because they have advantages such as small power requirement, reliability, and low price to manufacture. To reduce the responses of structures with MR dampers, a control system including power supply, controller, and sensors is required. However, when a mount of MR dampers are used to a large?scale civil structure such as cable stayed bridges, the control system becomes complex. Therefore, it is not easy to install and maintain the MR damper based control system. To resolve above difficulties, This paper proposes a smart passive system that consists of a MR damper and an electromagnetic induction(EMI) system. According to the Faraday’s law of induction, EMI system that is attached to the MR damper produces electric energy. The produced energy is supplied to the MR damper. Thus, the MR damper with EMI system does not require any power at all. Furthermore, the induced electric energy is proportional to external loads like earthquakes, which means the MR damper with EMI system is adaptable to external loads without any controller and corresponding sensors. Therefore, it is easy to build up and maintain the proposed smart passive system.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.257-270
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• 2023

In this study, the feasibility and applicability of a friction damper with a vertical installation scheme are investigated. This device is composed of a steel section and two friction hinges at both ends which dissipate seismic energy. Due to its small width and vertical installation scheme, the proposed damper can minimize the interference with architectural functions. To evaluate the performance of the proposed damper, its mechanical behavior is theoretically evaluated and the required formulas for the yield strength and elastic stiffness are derived. The theoretical formulas are verified by establishing the analytical model of the damper in the SAP2000 software and comparing their results. To further investigate the performance of the developed damper, the provided analytical model is applied to a 4-story reinforced concrete (RC) structure and its performance is evaluated before and after retrofit under the Maximum Considered Earthquake (MCE) hazard level. The seismic performance is thoroughly evaluated in terms of maximum interstory drift ratio, displacement time history, residual displacement, and energy dissipation. The results show that the proposed damper can be efficiently used to protect the structure against seismic loads.