Utilizing the Adaptive Control in Mitigating the Seismic Response of Adjacent Buildings Connected with MR Dampers

Abstract

The mutual impacts between adjacent buildings caused large-scale damage during past major earthquakes sparking interest in examining the reliability and effectiveness of various control devices for alleviating the seismic responses of adjacent buildings. In this study, seismic response attenuation of multi-story adjacent buildings connected with MR dampers is examined using the Simple Adaptive Control (SAC) method. The use of the adaptive controller is advantageous as it can cope with the structural characteristics change during the severe events such as earthquakes. The simple Bouc-Wen model is considered in the analysis to model the highly nonlinear behavior of the MR damper. The Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR) is used to design the reference model with desired trajectories. The change in the structural characteristics is reflected as a reduction in the plant's mass and stiffness as a result of the damage in the structural system. The efficacy of the simple adaptive controller is investigated in the presence of damage and in case where the system still undamaged. The results show that connecting adjacent buildings with MR dampers driven by the Simple Adaptive Control method is quite effective in mitigating the seismic responses.