• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.891-918
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• 2015

In many of microdevices a part of a microbeam is covered by a piezoelectric layer. Depend on the application a DC or AC voltage is applied between upper and lower side of the piezoelectric layer. A common method in many of previous works for evaluating the response of these structures is discretizing by Galerkin method. In these works often single mode shape of a uniform microbeam i.e. the microbeam without piezoelectric layer has been used as comparison function, and so the convergence of the solution has not been verified. In this paper the Galerkin method is used for discretization, and a comprehensive analysis on the convergence of solution of equation that is discretized using this comparison function is studied for both clamped-clamped and clamped-free microbeams. The static and dynamic solution resulted from Galerkin method is compared to the modal expansion solution. In addition the static solution is compared to an exact solution. It is denoted that the required numbers of uniform microbeam mode shapes for convergence of static solution due to DC voltage depends on the position and thickness of deposited piezoelectric layer. It is shown that when the clamped-clamped microbeam is coated symmetrically by piezoelectric layer, then the convergence for static solution may be obtained using only first mode. This result is valid for clamped-free case when it is covered by piezoelectric layer from left clamped side to the right. It is shown that when voltage is AC then the number of required uniform microbeam shape mode for convergence is much more than the number of required mode in modal expansion due to the dynamic effect of piezoelectric layer. This difference increases by increasing the piezoelectric thickness, the closeness of the excitation frequency to natural frequency and decreasing the damping coefficient. This condition is often indefeasible in microresonator system. It is concluded that discreitizing the equation of motion using one mode shape of uniform microbeam as comparison function in many of previous works causes considerable errors.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.495-508
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• 2018

Shape memory alloys (SMAs) exhibit superelasticity given the ambient temperature is above the austenite finish temperature threshold, the magnitude of which significantly depends on the metal ingredients though. For the monocrystalline CuAlBe SMAs, their superelasticity was found being maintained even when the ambient temperature is down to $-40^{\circ}C$. Thus this makes such SMAs particularly favorable for outdoor seismic applications, such as the framed structures located in cold regions with substantial temperature oscillation. Due to the thermo-mechanical coupling mechanism, the hysteretic properties of SMAs vary with temperature change, primarily including altered material strength and different damping. Thus, this study adopted the monocrystalline CuAlBe SMAs as the kernel component of the SMA braces. To quantify the seismic response characteristics at various temperatures, a wide temperature range from -40 to $40^{\circ}C$ are considered. The middle temperature, $0^{\circ}C$, is artificially selected to be the reference temperature in the performance comparisons, as well the corresponding material properties are used in the seismic design procedure. Both single-degree-of-freedom systems and a six-story braced frame were numerically analyzed by subjecting them to a suite of earthquake ground motions corresponding to the design basis hazard level. To the frame structures, the analytical results show that temperature variation generates minor influence on deformation and energy demands, whereas low temperatures help to reduce acceleration demands. Further, attributed to the excellent superelasticity of the monocrystalline CuAlBe SMAs, the frames successfully maintain recentering capability without leaving residual deformation upon considered earthquakes, even when the temperature is down to $-40^{\circ}C$.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.91-99
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• 2012

In recently, the vibration control of adjacent buildings have been studied and magneto-rheological(MR) fluid dampers have been applied to seismic response control. MR dampers can be controlled with small power supplies and the dynamic range of this damping force is quite large. This MR damper is one of semi-active dampers as a new class of smart dampers. In this study, vibration control effect according to the installation location of the MR damper connected adjacent buildings has been investigated. Adjacent building structures with different natural frequencies were used as example structures. Groundhook control model is applied to determinate control force of MR damper. In this numerical analysis, it has been shown that displacement responses can be effectively controlled as adjacent buildings are connected at roof floors by MR damper. And acceleration responses can be effectively reduced when two buildings are connected at the mid-stories of adjacent buildings by MR damper. Therefore, the installation floor of the MR damper should be selected with seismic response control target.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.353-374
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• 2014

Recent studies were dedicated to the realization of measurements on stay-cable samples of different geometry and static conditions as available at several facilities. The elaboration of the acquired data showed a a satisfactory efficacy of the dampers made of NiTi wires in smoothing the cable oscillations. A further attempt to investigate the applicability of the achieved results beyond the specific case-studies represented by the tested cable-stayed samples is herein pursued. Comparative studies are carried out by varying the diameter of the NiTi wire so that similar measurements can be taken also from laboratory steel cables of reduced size. Details of the preparation of the Ni-Ti wires are discussed with particular attention being paid to the suppression of the creep phenomenon. The resulting shape of the hysteretic cycle differs according to the wire diameter, which affects the order of the fitting polynomial to be used when trying to retrieve the experimental results by numerical analyses. For a NiTi wire of given diameter, an estimate of the amount of dissipated energy per cycle is given at low levels of maximum strain, which correspond to a fatigue fracture life of the order of millions of cycles. The dissipative capability is affected by both the temperature and the cycling frequency at which the tests are performed. Such effects are quantified and an ageing process is proposed in order to extend the working temperature range of the damper to cold weathers typical of the winter season in Northern Europe and Canada. A procedure for the simulation of the shape memory alloy behavior in lengthy cables by finite element analysis is eventually outlined.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.327-345
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• 2014

This paper presents a composite control strategy for the active suppression of vibration due to the unknown disturbances, such as external excitation, harmonic effects and control spillover, as well as high-frequency accelerometer measurement noise in the all-clamped stiffened plate. The proposed composite control action based on the modal approach, consists of two contributions including feedback part and feedforward part. The feedback part is the well-known PID controller, which is widely used to increase the structure damping and improve its dynamic performance close to the resonance frequencies. In order to get better performance for vibration suppression, the weight matrixes is optimized by chaos sequence. Then an improved disturbance observer (IDOB) as the feedforward compensation part is developed to enhance the vibration suppression performance of PID under various disturbances and uncertainties. The proposed IDOB can simultaneously estimate the various disturbances dynamically as well as measurement noise acting on the system and suppress them by feedforward compensation design. A rigorous analysis is also given to show why the IDOB can effectively suppress the unknown disturbances and measurement noise. In order to verify the proposed composite control algorithm (IDOB-PID), the dSPACE real-time simulation platform is used and an experimental platform for the all-clamped stiffened plate active vibration control system is set up. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness, practicality and strong anti-disturbances ability of the proposed control strategy.

• Journal of Korean Association for Spatial Structures
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.101-110
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• 2011

Many researchers have attempted to apply semi-active control systems in the civil engineering structures. Recently, magneto-rheological(MR) fluid dampers have been developed. This MR damper is one of semi-active dampers as a new class of smart dampers. This paper discusses the application of MR damper for seismic response control of adjacent buildings subjected to earthquake. Here, a controllable damping force of MR damper that is installed between adjacent buildings is applied to seismic response control. A hybrid model combines skyhook and groundhook control algorithm so that the benefits of each can be combined together. In this paper, hybrid control model are applied to the multi degree of freedom system representative of buildings in order to reduce seismic response of adjacent buildings. And the performance of hybrid control model is compared with that of others. It was demonstrated that hybrid control model or adjacent buildings with MR damper was effective for seismic response control of two adjacent buildings reciprocally.

• 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.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.89-102
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• 2020

Shape memory alloy (SMA)-based Superelasticity-assisted Slider (SSS) is proposed as an engineering solution to practically exploit the well-accepted advantages of both sliding isolation and SMA-based recentering. Self-centering capability in SSS is provided by austenitic SMA cables (or wire ropes), recently attracting a lot of interest and attention in earthquake engineering and seismic isolation. The cables are arranged in various novel and conventional configurations to make SSS versatile for aseismic design and retrofit of structures. All the configurations are detailed with thorough technical drawings. It is shown that SSS is applicable without the need for Isolation Units (IUs). IUs, at the same time, are devised for industrialized applications. The proof-of-concept study is carried out through the examination of mechanical behavior in all the alternative configurations. Force-displacement relations are determined. Isolation capabilities are predicted based on the decreases in seismic demands, estimated by the increases in effective periods and equivalent damping ratios. Restoring forces normalized relative to resisting forces are assessed as the criteria for self-centering capabilities. Lengths of SMA cables required in each configuration are calculated to assess the cost and practicality. Practical implementation is realized by setting up a small-scale IU. The effectiveness of SSS under seismic actions is evaluated using an innovative computer model and compared to those of well-known Isolation Systems (ISs) protecting a reference building. Comparisons show that SSS seems to be an effective IS and suitable for earthquake protection of both structural and non-structural elements. Further research aimed at additional validation of the system are outlined.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.615-636
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• 2014

Aluminium Foam Sandwich (AFS) panels are becoming always more attractive in transportation applications thanks to the excellent combination of mechanical properties, high strength and stiffness, with functional ones, thermo-acoustic isolation and vibration damping. These properties strongly depend on the density of the foam, the morphology of the pores, the type (open or closed cells) and the size of the gas bubbles enclosed in the solid material. In this paper, the vibrational performances of two classes of sandwich panels with an Alulight(R) foam core are studied. Experimental tests, in terms of frequency response function and modal analysis, are performed in order to investigate the effect of different percentage of porosity in the foam, as well as the effect of the random distribution of the gas bubbles. Experimental results are used as a reference for developing numerical models using finite element approach. Firstly, a sensitivity analysis is performed in order to obtain a limit-but-bounded dynamic response, modelling the foam core as a homogeneous one. The experimental-numerical correlation is evaluated in terms of natural frequencies and mode shapes. Afterwards, an update of the previous numerical model is presented, in which the core is not longer modelled as homogeneous. Mass and stiffness are randomly distributed in the core volume, exploring the space of the eigenvectors.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.983-1004
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• 2016

Nowadays, there are two classes of methods for damage detection in structures consisting of static and dynamic. The dynamic methods are based on studying the changes in structure's dynamic characteristics. The theoretical basis of this method is that damage causes changes in dynamic characteristics of structures. The dynamic methods are divided into two categories: signal based and modal based. The modal based methods utilize the modal properties consisting of natural frequencies, modal damping and mode shapes. As the modal properties are sensitive to changes in the structure, these can be used for detecting the damages. In this study, using dynamic method and modal based approach (natural frequencies and mode shapes), the objective function is formulated. Then, detection of damages of truss structures is addressed by using Simplified Dolphin Echolocation algorithm and solving inverse optimization problem. Many scenarios are used to simulate the damages. To demonstrate the ability of the algorithm, different truss structures with several multiple elements scenarios are tested using a few runs. The influence of the two different levels of noise in the modal data for these scenarios is also considered. The last example of this article is investigated using a different mutation. This mutation obtains the exact answer with fewer loops and population by limited computational effort.