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Trust-region based instantaneous optimal semi-active control of long-span spatially extended structures with MRF-04K damper

Lin Wei1, Li Zhongxian1,2 and Ding Yang1,2

School of Civil Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China
Tianjin Key Laboratory of Civil Engineering Structures and New Materials, Tianjin 300072, China

Abstract: In the field of civil engineering, magnetorheological fluid (MRF) damper-based semi-active control systems have received considerable attention for use in protecting structures from natural hazards such as strong earthquakes and high winds. In this paper, the MRF damper-based semi-active control system is applied to a long-span spatially extended structure and its feasibility is discussed. Meanwhile, a trust-region method based instantaneous optimal semi-active control algorithm (TIOC) is proposed to improve the performance of the semi-active control system in a multiple damper situation. The proposed TIOC describes the control process as a bounded constraint optimization problem, in which an optimal semi-active control force vector is solved by the trust-region method in every control step to minimize the structural responses. A numerical example of a railway station roof structure installed with MRF-04K dampers is presented. First, a modified Bouc-Wen model is utilized to describe the behavior of the selected MRF-04K damper. Then, two semi-active control systems, including the well-known clipped-optimal controller and the proposed TIOC controller, are considered. Based on the characteristics of the long-span spatially extended structure, the performance of the control system is evaluated under uniform earthquake excitation and travelling-wave excitation with different apparent velocities. The simulation results indicate that the MR fluid damper-based semi-active control systems have the potential to mitigate the responses of full-scale long-span spatially extended structures under earthquake hazards. The superiority of the proposed TIOC controller is demonstrated by comparing its control effectiveness with the clipped-optimal controller for several different cases.

Keywords: long-span spatially extended structure; instantaneous optimal control; semi-active control; trust-region method; magnetorheological (MR) damper; bounded constraint optimization; modified Bouc-Wen model; clipped-optimal control

Copyright© 2009 IEM. Journal of Earthquake Engineering and Engineering Vibration. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as described below, without written permission from the Publisher. Copying of articles is not permitted except for personal and internal use, to the extent permitted by national copyright law, or under the terms of a license issued by the National Reproduction Rights Organization of China.