• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.161-174
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• 2018

The present study investigates the soil-structure interaction (SSI) effects on the seismic performance of smart base-isolated structures. The adopted control algorithm for tuning the control force plays a key role in successful implementation of such structures; however, in most studied carried out in the literature, these algorithms are designed without considering the SSI effect. Considering the SSI effects, a linear quadratic regulator (LQR) controller is employed to seismic control of a smart base-isolated structure. A particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm is used to tune the gain matrix of the controller in both cases without and with SSI effects. In order to conduct a parametric study, three types of soil, three well-known earthquakes and a vast range of period of the superstructure are considered for assessment the SSI effects on seismic control process of the smart-base isolated structure. The adopted controller is able to make a significant reduction in base displacement. However, any attempt to decrease the maximum base displacement results in slight increasing in superstructure accelerations. The maximum and RMS base displacements of the smart base-isolated structures in the case of considering SSI effects are more than the corresponding responses in the case of ignoring SSI effects. Overall, it is also observed that the maximum and RMS base displacements of the structure are increased by increasing the natural period of the superstructure. Furthermore, it can be concluded that the maximum and RMS superstructure accelerations are significant influenced by the frequency content of earthquake excitations and the natural frequency of the superstructure. The results show that the design of the controller is very influenced by the SSI effects. In addition, the simulation results demonstrate that the ignoring the SSI effect provides an unfavorable control system, which may lead to decline in the seismic performance of the smart-base isolated structure including the SSI effects.

• 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.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.10 no.5
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• pp.1067-1087
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• 2016

In this paper, a decoupled proportional-integral-derivative (PID) control approach for seismic control of smart structures is presented. First, the state space equation of a structure is transformed into modal coordinates and parameters of the modal PID control are separately designed in a reduced modal space. Then, the feedback gain matrix of the controller is obtained based on the contribution of modal responses to the structural responses. The performance of the controller is investigated to adjust control force of piezoelectric friction dampers (PFDs) in a benchmark base isolated building. In order to tune the modal feedback gain of the controller, a suitable trade-off among the conflicting objectives, i.e., the reduction of maximum modal base displacement and the maximum modal floor acceleration of the smart base isolated structure, as well as the maximum modal control force, is created using a multi-objective cuckoo search (MOCS) algorithm. In terms of reduction of maximum base displacement and story acceleration, numerical simulations show that the proposed method performs better than other reported controllers in the literature. Moreover, simulation results show that the PFDs are able to efficiently dissipate the input excitation energy and reduce the damage energy of the structure. Overall, the proposed control strategy provides a simple strategy to tune the control forces and reduces the number of sensors of the control system to the number of controlled stories.

• Advances in Computational Design
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.211-223
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• 2017

This research presented a numerical and experimental study on the seismic performance of first-generation base-isolated and fixed-base nuclear power plants (NPP). Three types of the base isolation system were applied to rehabilitate the first-generation nuclear power plants: frictional pendulum (FP), high-damping rubber (HDR) and lead-rubber (LR) base isolation. Also, an Excel program was proposed for the design of the abovementioned base isolators in accordance with UBC 97 and the Japan Society of Base Isolation Regulation. The seismic assessment was performed using the pushover and nonlinear time history analysis methods in accordance with the FEMA 356 regulation. To validate the adequacy of the proposed design procedure, two small-scale NPPs were constructed at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia's structural laboratory and subjected to a pushover test for two different base conditions, fixed and HDR-isolated base. The results showed that base-isolated structures achieved adequate seismic performance compared with the fixed-base one, and all three isolators led to a significant reduction in the containment's tension, overturning moment and base shear.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.73-85
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• 2024

Smart base-isolated buildings rest on flexible pads known as base isolators that minimize the effect of external disturbances along with active/semi-active actuators. The strategies used to control these active components are typically based on system models that are known a priori. Although these models describe some of the most important dynamics of the elements involved in the system, the high degree of uncertainty in the behavior of a structure under external disturbances is very difficult to characterize using a fixed model. In this work, we propose a strategy that deals with this issue: the input that controls the actuator in the base isolation system results from the compound action of a controller that relies on a model of the system that is known a priori, and a control policy that is designed based on online data-driven inferences on the behavior of the system. In this way, the control design process incorporates both the prior information about the system and the unknowns of the system, such as non-modeled parameters and nonlinear behaviors in the building. We show through simulations the performance of the proposed method in an eight-story building subjected to seismic loading.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.549-560
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• 2022

The optimum damping and tuning frequency ratio of the tuned mass damper-inerter (TMDI) for the base-isolated structure is obtained using the numerical searching technique under stationary white-noise and filtered white-noise earthquake excitation. The minimization of the isolated structure's mean-square relative displacement and absolute acceleration, as well as the maximization of the energy dissipation index, were chosen as the criteria for optimality. Using a curve-fitting technique, explicit formulae for TMDI damping and tuning frequency for white-noise excitation are then derived. The proposed empirical expressions for TMDI parameters are found to have a negligible error, making them useful for the effective design of base-isolated structures. The effectiveness of TMDI and its optimum parameters are influenced by the soil condition and isolation frequency, according to the comparison made of the optimized parameters and response with different soil profiles. The effectiveness of an optimally designed TMDI in controlling the displacement and acceleration response of the flexible isolated structure under real and pulse-type earthquakes is also observed and found to be increased as the inertance mass ratio increases.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.359-371
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• 2018

Strong seismic events commonly cause large drift and deformation, and functionality failures in the superstructures. One way to prevent functionality failures is to design structures which are ductile and flexible through yielding when subjected to strong ground excitations. By developing forces that assist motion as "negative stiffness forces", yielding can be achieved. In this paper, we adopt the weakening and damping method to achieve a new approach to reduce all of the structural responses by further adjusting damping phase. A semi-active control system is adopted to perform the experiments. In this adaptation, negative stiffness forces through certain devices are used in weakening phase to reduce structural strength. Magneto-rheological (MR) dampers are then added to preserve stability of the structure. To adjust the voltage in MR dampers, an inverse model is employed in the control system to command MR dampers and generate the desired control forces, where a velocity control algorithm produces initial required control force. An extensive numerical study is conducted to evaluate proposed methodology by using the smart base-isolated benchmark building. Totally, nine control systems are examined to study proposed strategy. Based on the numerical results of seven earthquakes, the use of proposed strategy not only reduces base displacements, base accelerations and base shear but also leads to reduction of accelerations and inter story drifts of the superstructure. Numerical results shows that the usage of inverse model produces the desired regulated damping, thus improving the stability of the structure.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
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• 2005.03a
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• pp.544-551
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• 2005

This paper investigates the effectiveness of the MR damper-based control systems for seismic protection of base isolated building sturcutres employing some semiactive control algorithms, such as the modified clipped-optimal control, the maximum energy dissipation, and the modulated homogeneous friction, by examining the Phase I smart base isolated benchmark building problem. The results of the numerical simulations showed that most of the control systems considered herein could be beneficial in reducing seismic responses, especially base displacement or isolator deformation, of base isolated building structures. It is also verified that another version of the modified clipped-optimal control algorithm proposed in this study and the modulated homogeneous friction algorithm are more effective than other semiactive control algorithms.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.195-208
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• 2016

Seismic isolation systems are essentially designed to preserve structural safety, prevent occupants injury and properties damage. An active saturated LMI-based control design is proposed to attenuate seismic disturbances in base-isolated structures under saturation actuators. Using a mathematical model of an eight-storied building structure, an active control algorithm is designed. Performance evaluation of the controller is carried out in a simplified model version of a benchmark building system, which is recognized as a state-of-the-art model for numerical experiments of structures under seismic perturbations. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm is robust with respect to model and seismic perturbations. Finally, the performance indices show that the proposed controller behaves satisfactorily and with a reasonable control effort.

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