• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.375-393
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• 2006

Under high velocity, pulse type near source earthquakes semi-active control systems are very effective in reducing seismic response base isolated structures. Semi-active control systems can be classified as: 1) independently variable stiffness, 2) independently variable damping, and 3) combined variable stiffness and damping systems. Several researchers have studied the effectiveness of independently varying damping systems for seismic response reduction of base isolated structures. In this study effectiveness of a combined system consisting of a semi-active independently variable stiffness (SAIVS) device and a magnetorheological (MR) damper in reducing seismic response of base isolated structures is analytically investigated. The SAIVS device can vary the stiffness, and hence the period, of the isolation system; whereas, the MR damper enhances the energy dissipation characteristics of the isolation system. Two separate control algorithms, i.e., a nonlinear tangential stiffness moving average control algorithm for smooth switching of the SAIVS device and a Lyapunov based control algorithm for damping variation of MR damper, are developed. Single and multi degree of freedom systems consisting of sliding base isolation system and both the SAIVS device and MR damper are considered. Results are presented in the form of nonlinear response spectra, and effectiveness of combined variable stiffness and variable damping system in reducing seismic response of sliding base isolated structures is evaluated. It is shown that the combined variable stiffness and variable damping system leads to significant response reduction over cases with variable stiffness or variable damping systems acting independently, over a broad period range.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.627-643
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• 2015

Negative stiffness, previously emulated by active or semi-active control for cable vibration mitigation, is realized passively using a self-contained highly compressed spring, the negative stiffness device (NSD).The NSD installed in parallel with a viscous damper (VD) in the vicinity of cable anchorage, enables increment of damper deformation during cable vibrations and hence increases the attainable cable damping. Considering the small cable displacement at the damper location, even with the weakening device, the force provided by the NSD-VD assembly is approximately linear. Complex frequency analysis has thus been conducted to evaluate the damping effect of the assembly on the cable; the displacement-dependent negative stiffness is further accounted by numerical analysis, validating the accuracy of the linear approximation for practical ranges of cable and NSD configurations. The NSD is confirmed to be a practical and cost-effective solution to improve the modal damping of a cable provided by an external damper, especially for super-long cables where the damper location is particularly limited. Moreover, mathematically, a linear negative stiffness and viscous damping assembly has proven capability to represent active or semi-active control for simplified cable vibration analysis as reported in the literature, while in these studies only the assembly located near cable anchorage has been addressed. It is of considerable interest to understand the general characteristics of a cable with the assembly relieving the location restriction, since it is quite practical to have an active controller installed at arbitrary location along the cable span such as by hanging an active tuned mass damper. In this paper the cable frequency variations and damping evolutions with respect to the arbitrary assembly location are then evaluated and compared to those of a taut cable with a viscous damper at arbitrary location, and novel frequency shifts are observed. The characterized complex frequencies presented in this paper can be used for preliminary damping effect evaluation of an adaptive passive or semi-active or active device for cable vibration control.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.65-80
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• 2020

In order to protect a structure over its full life cycle, a novel tuned mass damper (TMD), the so-called semi-active eddy current pendulum tuned mass damper (SAEC-PTMD), which can retune its frequency and damping ratio in real-time, is proposed in this study. The structural instantaneous frequency is identified through a Hilbert-Huang transformation (HHT), and the SAEC-PTMD pendulum is adjusted through an HHT-based control algorithm. The eddy current damping parameters are discussed, and the relationship between effective damping coefficients and air gaps is fitted through a polynomial function. The semi-active eddy current damping can be adjusted in real-time by adjusting the air gap based on the linear-quadratic-Gaussian (LQG)-based control algorithm. To verify the vibration control effect of the SAEC-PTMD, an idealized linear primary structure equipped with an SAEC-PTMD excited by harmonic excitations and near-fault pulse-like earthquake excitations is proposed as one of the two case studies. Under strong earthquakes, structures may go into the nonlinear state, while the Bouc-Wen model has a wild application in simulating the hysteretic characteristic. Therefore, in the other case study, a nonlinear primary structure based on the Bouc-Wen model is proposed. An optimal passive TMD is used for comparison and the detuning effect, which results from the cumulative damage to primary structures, is considered. The maximum and root-mean-square (RMS) values of structural acceleration and displacement time history response, structural acceleration, and displacement response spectra are used as evaluation indices. Power analyses for one earthquake excitation are presented as an example to further study the energy dissipation effect of an SAECPTMD. The results indicate that an SAEC-PTMD performs better than an optimized passive TMD, both before and after damage occurs to the primary structure.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.627-639
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• 2019

Passive control may not provide enough damping for a stay cable since the control devices are often restricted to a low location level. In order to enhance control performance of conventional passive dampers, a new type of damper integrated with a rotary electromagnetic damper providing variable damping force and a flywheel serving as an inertial mass, called the rotary electromagnetic inertial mass damper (REIMD), is presented for suppressing the cable vibrations in this paper. The mechanical model of the REIMD is theoretically derived according to generation mechanisms of the damping force and the inertial force, and further validated by performance tests. General dynamic characteristics of an idealized taut cable with a REIMD installed close to the cable end are theoretically investigated, and parametric analysis are then conducted to investigate the effects of inertial mass and damping coefficient on vibration control performance. Finally, vibration control tests on a scaled cable model with a REIMD are performed to further verify mitigation performance through the first two modal additional damping ratios of the cable. Both the theoretical and experimental results show that control performance of the cable with the REIMD are much better than those of conventional passive viscous dampers, which mainly attributes to the increment of the damper displacement due to the inertial mass induced negative stiffness effects of the REIMD. Moreover, it is concluded that both inertial mass and damping coefficient of an optimum REIMD will decrease with the increase of the mode order of the cable, and oversize inertial mass may lead to negative effect on the control performance.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.443-458
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• 2011

An extensive numerical investigation on the magnetorheological (MR) damper-based smart passive control system for mitigating vibration of stay cables under wind loads has been conducted. The smart passive system is incorporated with an electromagnetic induction (EMI) device for reducing complexity of the conventional MR damper based semi-active control system by eliminating an external power supply part and a feedback control part (i.e., sensors and controller). In this study, the control performance of the smart passive system has been evaluated by using a cable structure model extracted from a full-scale long stay cable with high tension. Numerical simulation results of the proposed smart damping system are compared with those of the passive and semi-active control systems employing MR dampers. It is demonstrated from the results that the control performance of the smart passive control system is better than those of the passive control cases and comparable to those of the semi-active control systems in the forced vibration analysis as well as the free vibration analysis, even though there is no external power source in the smart passive system.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.385-403
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• 2007

The effectiveness of the newly developed smart passive control system employing a magnetorheological (MR) damper and an electromagnetic induction (EMI) part for seismic protection of base isolated structures is numerically investigated. An EMI part in the system consists of a permanent magnet and a coil, which changes the kinetic energy of the deformation of an MR damper into the electric energy (i.e. the induced current) according to the Faraday's law of electromagnetic induction. In the smart passive control system, the damping characteristics of an MR damper are varied with the current input generated from an EMI part. Hence, it does not need any control system consisting of sensors, a controller and an external power source. This makes the system much simpler as well as more economic. To verify the efficacy of the smart passive control system, a series of numerical simulations are carried out by considering the benchmark base isolated structure control problems. The numerical simulation results show that the smart passive control system has the comparable control performance to the conventional MR damper-based semiactive control system. Therefore, the smart passive control system could be considered as one of the promising control devices for seismic protection of seismically excited base isolated structures.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.1439-1461
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• 2015

Design criteria, modeling rules, and analysis principles of seismic isolation systems have already found place in important building codes and standards such as the Uniform Building Code and ASCE/SEI 7-05. Although real behaviors of isolation systems composed of high damping or lead rubber bearings are nonlinear, equivalent linear models can be obtained using effective stiffness and damping which makes use of linear seismic analysis methods for seismic-isolated buildings possible. However, equivalent linear modeling and analysis may lead to errors in seismic response terms of multi-story buildings and thus need to be assessed comprehensively. This study investigates the accuracy of equivalent linear modeling via numerical experiments conducted on generic five-story three dimensional seismic-isolated buildings. A wide range of nonlinear isolation systems with different characteristics and their equivalent linear counterparts are subjected to historical earthquakes and isolation system displacements, top floor accelerations, story drifts, base shears, and torsional base moments are compared. Relations between the accuracy of the estimates of peak structural responses from equivalent linear models and typical characteristics of nonlinear isolation systems including effective period, rigid-body mode period, effective viscous damping ratio, and post-yield to pre-yield stiffness ratio are established. Influence of biaxial interaction and plan eccentricity are also examined.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.582-587
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• 2012

This paper presents a solution of the vibration reduction in the hollow shafts by using magentorehological( MR) elastomer. Proposed active damping structure is built by embedding the MR elastomers whose elastic modulus is controllable by an applied magnetic field. MR elastomers consist of synthetic rubber filled with micron-sized magnetizable particles. For reduction of vibration, dynamic damper of hollow shaft is designed by using MR elastomer and equipped in the hollow shaft for the application to drive shaft. Experiment results are shown through the experiments to confirm the effect of MR elastomer dynamic damper for vibration reduction. Thus, the designed damping structure can be applied to vibration absorber used in drive shafts as well as the propeller shafts.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.255-262
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• 2018

Purpose: To obtain the dynamic characteristics (spring stiffness and damping coefficient) of a rubber mount supporting a tractor cabin in order to develop a simulation model of an agricultural tractor. Methods: The KS M 6604 rubber mount test method was used to test the dynamic characteristics of the rubber mount. Of the methods proposed in the standard, the resonance method was used. To perform the test according to the standard, a base excitation test device was constructed and the accelerations were measured. Results: Displacement transmissibility was measured by varying the frequency from 3-30 Hz. The vibration transmissibility at resonance was confirmed, and the dynamic stiffness and damping coefficient of the rubber mount were obtained. The front rubber mount has a spring constant of 1247 N/mm and damping ratio of 3.27 Ns/mm, and the rear rubber mount has a spring constant of 702 N/mm and damping ratio of 1.92 Ns/mm. Conclusions: The parameters in the z-direction were obtained in this study. In future studies, we will develop a more complete tractor simulation model if the parameters for the x- and y-directions can be obtained.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.15-26
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• 2019

Over the past decades, a great variety of dampers have been developed and applied to mechanical, aerospace, and civil structures to control structural vibrations. This study is focused on two emerging damper types, namely, eddy current dampers (ECDs) and electromagnetic damper (EMDs), both of which are regarded as promising alternatives to commonly-applied viscous fluid dampers (VFDs) because of their similar mechanical behavior. This study aims to enhance the damping densities of ECDs and EMDs, which are typically lower than those of VFDs, by proposing new designs with multiple improvement measures. The design configurations, mechanisms, and experimental results of the new ECDs and EMDs are presented in this paper. The further comparison based on the experimental results revealed that the damping densities of the proposed ECD and EMD designs are comparable to those of market-available VFDs. Considering ECDs and EMDs are solid-state dampers without fluid leakage problems, the results obtained in this study demonstrate a great prospect of replacing conventional VFDs with the improved ECDs and EMDs in future large-scale applications.