Vibration Control of Civil Engineering Structures using Magneto-Rheological Dampers
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abstract
Recent developments in civil engineenng stmctures design and constmction allowed the creation of slender and
flexible stmctures such as towers, high-rise buildings and long span bridges. The structural properties of these
stmctures, namely the low damping capability makes them vulnerable to strong wind or earthquake actions.
In recent decades various control systems based on passive, active, semi-active and hybrid devices have been
proposed and different control strategies were developed and implemented for structural vibration control. Among
these, lhe semi-active based control hás become an important altemative to passive and active control methods as
a result of its ability to gather some of the advantages of the passive control such as the reliability of these systems
with the adaptability of the active control.
This paper addresses the semi-active contro
l of a scaled model frame equipped with
a magneto-rheological (MR) damper, deve
loped within the COVICOCEPAD project
(Eurocores program S3T) reporting related
research and development related with
structural control of civil
engineering structures. The scaled frame is a model of a
three-storey building with a single MR
damper rigidly connected between the
ground and the first floor. Among the vari
ety of semi-active control algorithms
available for MR damper control, a cli
pped-optimal control
algorithm model-based
on the linear quadratic regul
ator (LQR) and a fuzzy control non-model-based
algorithm were selected as the semi-activ
e controllers. A small sponge type MR
damper was experimentally tested under seve
ral input excitations to characterize the
damper performance. The simple Bouc-Wen phenomenological model was chosen
to simulate the nonlinear behavior of
the MR damper and the related model
parameters were obtained based on the ex
perimentally measured responses. Some
numerical results of the uncontrolled
and controlled frame under El Centro
earthquake are given to evaluate the perfor
mance of the selected control strategies.
