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

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
• /
• v.10 no.6 s.52
• /
• pp.37-46
• /
• 2006

In this study, the efficacy of the newly developed smart passive control system to improve seismic performance of base isolated building structures is numerically verified. The smart passive control system consists of a magnetorheological (MR) damper and an electromagnetic induction (EMI) part. The damping characteristics of an MR damper can be controlled by the current generated in an EMI part according to the Faraday's law of electromagnetic induction. An EMI part consisting of a permanent magnet and a solenoid coil could substitute a control system including sensors, a controller and an external power supply in a conventional smart control system. The benchmark control problem for a base isolated building presented by the american society of civil engineers is considered for numerical simulation. The control performance of the smart passive control system is compared to that of the conventional smart control system using MR dampers. It is demonstrated from the numerical simulation results that the smart passive control system is useful to improve the seismic performance of base isolated buildings.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.6 no.5
• /
• pp.495-514
• /
• 2014

The performance of passive control system for the seismic protection of a multi-tower cable-stayed bridge with the application of partially longitudinal constraint system is investigated. The seismic responses of the Jiashao Bridge, a six-tower cable-stayed bridge using the partially longitudinal constraint system are studied under real earthquake ground motions. The effects of the passive control devices including the viscous fluid dampers and elastic cables on the seismic responses of the bridge are examined by taking different values of parameters of the devices. Further, the optimization design principle of passive control system using viscous fluid dampers is presented to determine the optimized parameters of the viscous fluid dampers. The results of the investigations show that the control objective of the multi-tower cable-stayed bridge with the partially longitudinal constraint system is to reduce the base shears and moments of bridge towers longitudinally restricted with the bridge deck. The viscous fluid dampers are found to be more effective than elastic cables in controlling the seismic responses. The optimized parameters for the viscous fluid dampers are determined following the principle that the peak displacement at the end of bridge deck reaches to the maximum value, which can yield maximum reductions in the base shears and moments of bridge towers longitudinally restricted with the bridge deck, with slight increases in the base shears and moments of bridge towers longitudinally unrestricted with the bridge deck.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
• /
• v.32 no.6
• /
• pp.81-88
• /
• 2017

This study deals with the optimal design of a hybrid control system composed of a combination of active control system and passive control system for effective seismic performance improvement of two adjacent structures. The proposed hybrid control system adopts a configuration of installing an active control device in one building and connecting two adjacent structures with a passive control device so that the one-side active control force can be bi-directionally applied to both buildings through the passive connecting devices. In order to derive the optimal performance of the proposed system, the design parameters of the passive and active control systems were searched using the genetic algorithm. Numerical simulations of 10-story and 8-story buildings have been performed to verify the effectiveness of the proposed technique. For the purpose of comparison, the conventional independent control system with two identical active control systems being installed separately for each structure was also optimally designed and its seismic response has been evaluated as well. From the comparative results of the two control systems, it is demonstrated that the proposed hybrid control system requires larger control force for its one-side active control device than the conventional independent control system does for each of both-side active devices, but quite less than the total control force required for both-side devices of the independent control system, while maintaining similar seismic performance. Therefore, the proposed system is more economical and reliable than the conventional independent control system with two identical active devices.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.16 no.5
• /
• pp.807-833
• /
• 2015

While tuned mass dampers are found to be effective in suppressing vibration in a tall building, integrating it with a semi-active control system enables it to perform more efficiently. In this paper a forty-story tall steel-frame building designed according to the Canadian standard, has been studied with and without semi-active and passive tuned mass dampers. The building is assumed to be located in the Vancouver, Canada. A magneto-rheological fluid based semi-active tuned mass damper has been optimally designed to suppress the vibration of the structure against seismic excitation, and an appropriate control procedure has been implemented to optimize the building's semi-active tuned mass system to reduce the seismic response. Furthermore, the control system parameters have been adjusted to yield the maximum reduction in the structural displacements at different floor levels. The response of the structure has been studied with a variety of ground motions with low, medium and high frequency contents to investigate the performance of the semi-active tuned mass damper in comparison to that of a passive tuned mass damper. It has been shown that the semi-active control system modifies structural response more effectively than the classic passive tuned mass damper in both mitigation of maximum displacement and reduction of the settling time of the building.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.9 no.4
• /
• pp.383-396
• /
• 2000

A new structure-vibration-control approach is proposed which uses a passive coupling element between two parallel structures to reduce the seismic response of a system due to earthquake excitation. Dynamic characteristics of the two coupled single-degree-freedom systems subject to stationary white-noise excitation are examined by means of statistical energy analysis (SEA) techniques. Optimal parameters of the passive coupling element such as damping and stiffness under different circumstances are determined with an emphasis on the influence of the structural parameters of the system on the optimal parameters and control effectiveness. Numerical results including the root mean square values of the response due to the filtered white-noise excitation and the time-histories of response to El Centro 1940 NS excitation are presented.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.18 no.1
• /
• pp.129-145
• /
• 2020

Seismic resilience is a key feature for buildings that play a strategic role within the community. In this framework, not only the structural and non-structural elements damage but also the protracted structural dysfunction can contribute significantly to overall seismic damage and post-seismic crisis situations. Reduction of the residual and peak displacements and energy dissipation by replaceable elements are some effective aspects to pursue in order to enhance the resilience. Control systems able to adapt their response based on the nature of events, such as active or semi-active, can achieve the best results, but also require higher costs and their complexity jeopardizes their reliability; on the other hand, a passive control system is not able to adapt but its functioning is more reliable and characterized by lower costs. In this study it is proposed a strategy for the optimization of the dissipative capacity of a seismic resistant system obtained placing in parallel two different groups dissipative Re-Centering Devices, specifically designed to enhance the energy dissipation, one for the low and the other for the high intensity earthquakes. In this way the efficiency of the system in dissipating the seismic energy is kept less sensitive to the seismic intensity compared to the case of only one group of dissipative devices.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
• /
• v.7 no.1
• /
• pp.17-29
• /
• 2003

This paper preliminarily investigates the effectiveness of various control systems, such as passive, active, semiactive and hybrid control, for seismic protection of cable-stayed bridges by examining the ASCE first generation benchmark problem for a cable-stayed bridge. This benchm.0.00000ark problem considers the cable-stayed bridge that is scheduled for completion in Missouri, USA In 2003. Seismic considerations were strongly considered in the design of this bridge due to location of the bridge and its critical role as a principal crossing of the Mississippi River. Based on detailed drawings of this cable-stayed bridge, a three-dimensional linearized evaluation model has been developed to represent the complex behavior of the bridge. A set of eighteen evaluation criteria has been developed to evaluate the capability of each control system. In this study, four passive control systems, one active control system, two semiactive control systems and three hybrid control systems are considered. Numerical simulation results show that all the control systems are effective in reducing the responses of the benchmark cable-stayed bridge under the historical earthquakes. To get good performance, however, the passive control systems need quite large control forces compared to other control systems. The simulation results also demonstrate that the passive, semiactive and hybrid control systems are robust to the stiffness uncertainty of the structure. Therefore, the semiactive and hybrid control systems are more appropriate in real applications for full-scale civil infrastructures.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.17 no.4
• /
• pp.425-434
• /
• 2019

The most effective passive vibration control and seismic resistance options in a reinforced concrete (RC) high-rise building (HRB) are the base isolation and the tuned mass damper (TMD) system. Many options, which may be suitable or not for different soil types, with different types of bearing systems, like rubber isolator, friction pendulum isolator and tension/compression isolator, are investigated to resist the base straining actions under five different earthquakes. TMD resists the seismic response, as a control system, by reducing top displacement or the total movement of the structure. Base isolation and TMDs work under seismic load in a different way, so the combination between base isolation and TMDs will reduce the harmful effect of the earthquakes in an effective and systematic way. In this paper, a comprehensive study of the combination of TMDs with three different base-isolator types for three different soil types and under five different earthquakes is conducted. The seismic response results under five different earthquakes of the studied nine RC HRB models (depicted by the top displacement, base shear force and base bending moment) are compared to show the most suitable hybrid passive vibration control system for three different soil types.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.22 no.1
• /
• pp.85-105
• /
• 2006

Control of structural response due to seismic excitation in a manner of coupling adjacent buildings has been actively developed, and most attention focused on those buildings of similar height. However, with the rapid development of some modern cities, multi-story buildings constructed with an auxiliary low-rise podium structure to provide extra functions to the complex become a growing construction scheme. Being inspired by the positively examined coupling control approach for buildings with similar height, this paper aims to provide a comprehensive analytical study on control effectiveness of using friction dampers to link the two buildings with significant height difference to supplement the recent experimental investigation carried out by the writers. The analytical model of a coupled building system is first developed with passive friction dampers being modeled as Coulomb friction. To highlight potential advantage of coupling the main building and podium structure with control devices that provide a lower degree of coupling, the inherent demerit of rigid-coupled configuration is then evaluated. Extensive parametric studies are finally performed. The concerned parameters influencing the design of optimal friction force and control efficiency include variety of earthquake excitation and differences in floor mass, story number as well as number of dampers installed between the two buildings. In general, the feasibility of interaction control approach applied to the complex structure for vibration reduction due to seismic excitation is supported by positive results.