Application of simple adaptive control to an MR damper-based control system for seismically excited nonlinear buildings

Abstract

In this paper, Simple Adaptive Control (SAC) is used to enhance the seismic response of nonlinear tall buildings based on acceleration feedback. Semi-active MR dampers are employed as control actuator due to their reliability and well-known dynamic models. Acceleration feedback is used because of availability, cost-efficiency and reliable measurements of acceleration sensors. However, using acceleration feedback in the control loop causes the structure not to apparently meet some requirements of the SAC algorithm. In addition to defining an appropriate SAC reference model and using inherently stable MR dampers, a modification in the original structure of the SAC is proposed in order to improve its adaptability to the situation in which the plant does not satisfy the algorithm\' s stability requirements. To investigate the performance of the developed control system, a numerical study is conducted on the benchmark 20-story nonlinear building and the responses of the SAC-controlled structure are compared to an H2/LQG clipped-optimal controller under the effect of different seismic excitations. As indicated by the results, SAC controller effectively reduces the story drifts and hence the seismically-induced damage throughout the structural members despite its simplicity, independence of structural parameters and while using fewer number of dampers in contrast with the H2/LQG clipped-optimal controller.