Experimental study on seismic control of towers in cable-supported bridges by incorporating fluid viscous dampers between sub-towers

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (10) ◽  
pp. 2086-2096
Author(s):  
Peng Zhou ◽  
Min Liu ◽  
Suchao Li ◽  
Hui Li ◽  
Gangbing Song

In this article, the seismic control of towers incorporated with fluid viscous dampers between sub-towers is investigated experimentally. To replace one entire tower, an alternative scheme consisting of four separate sub-towers is first proposed. Fluid viscous dampers are utilized as energy dissipation devices to be installed between sub-towers. Experimental tests are conducted to study the damping force characteristics. Three control strategies with various distributions of these dampers between sub-towers are developed. Then, a series of shaking table tests are carried out to evaluate the control performance of the proposed control strategies. Different earthquake records are adopted as seismic loadings. Experimental results clearly show a remarkable reduction in the towers seismic responses, including the accelerations, relative displacements, and strains. Rather than attaching dampers in concentrated ways, the strategy of distributing dampers uniformly behaves better.

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (05) ◽  
pp. 1850011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiang Yi ◽  
Jianzhong Li ◽  
Zhongguo Guan

To investigate the effectiveness of viscous damper on seismic control of single-tower cable-stayed bridges subjected to near-field ground motions, a 1/20-scale full cable-stayed bridge model was designed, constructed and tested on shake tables. A typical far-field ground motion and a near-field one were used to excite the bridge model from low to high intensity. The seismic responses of the bridge model with and without viscous dampers were analyzed and compared. Both numerical and test results revealed that viscous dampers are quite effective in controlling deck displacement of cable-stayed bridges subjected to near-field ground motions. However, due to near-field effects, viscous damper dissipated most energy through one large hysteresis loop, extensively increasing the deformation and damping force demand of the damper. Further study based on numerical analysis reveals that to optimize deck displacement of cable-stayed bridges during an earthquake, a viscous damper with relatively larger damping coefficient should be introduced under near-field ground motions than far-field ones.


Author(s):  
C. S. Tsai ◽  
L. L. Chung ◽  
T. C. Chiang ◽  
B. J. Chen ◽  
W. S. Chen

The way of passive control technologies has been recognized as an excellent method to mitigate seismic responses of structures during seismic excitations. In general, the energy dissipation devices based on their own mechanical property can be divided into two categories, which are velocity-dependent and displacement-dependent devices. In this study, a new displacement-dependent device which is called multiple-direction damper is proposed. The proposed damper has numerous advantages: (1) the fabrication of this energy-absorbing device is effortless; (2) the construction of the energy-absorbing system is easy; (3) it is simple to install the device into a structure; (4) the material used for this damper is easy to obtain; and (5) if any damage occurs in this damper during strong excitations, this energy-absorbing device can be replaced easily to recover its energy dissipation capacity. Experimental results from component tests show that the proposed damper provides significant energy-absorbing capacity. Furthermore, the multiple-direction dampers have also been equipped into a 5-story steel structure to demonstrate its efficiency on seismic mitigation. The experimental results from shaking table tests indicate that most of earthquake-induced energy imparted into the structure is dissipated by the proposed dampers. In the meanwhile, the seismic loadings imposing on the structure with devices can be reduced effectively as compared with those of the bare structure. Therefore, the multiple-direction damper can be recognized as an effective tool to assure the safety of structure under strong ground motions.


Sensors ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 75
Author(s):  
Thommas Kevin Sales Flores ◽  
Juan Moises Mauricio Villanueva ◽  
Heber P. Gomes ◽  
Sebastian Y. C. Catunda

Indirect measurement can be used as an alternative to obtain a desired quantity, whose physical positioning or use of a direct sensor in the plant is expensive or not possible. This procedure can been improved by means of feedback control strategies of a secondary variable, which can be measured and controlled. Its main advantage is a new form of dynamic response, with improvements in the response time of the measurement of the quantity of interest. In water pumping networks, this methodology can be employed for measuring the flow indirectly, which can be advantageous due to the high price of flow sensors and the operational complexity to install them in pipelines. In this work, we present the use of artificial intelligence techniques in the implementation of the feedback system for indirect flow measurement. Among the contributions of this new technique is the design of the pressure controller using the Fuzzy logic theory, which rules out the need for knowing the plant model, as well as the use of an artificial neural network for the construction of nonlinear models with the purpose of indirectly estimating the flow. The validation of the proposed approach was carried out through experimental tests in a water pumping system, fully automated and installed at the Laboratory of Hydraulic and Energy Efficiency in Sanitation at the Federal University of Paraiba (LENHS/UFPB). The results were compared with an electromagnetic flow sensor present in the system, obtaining a maximum relative error of 10%.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hytham Elwardany ◽  
Robert Jankowski ◽  
Ayman Seleemah

AbstractSeismic-induced pounding between adjacent buildings may have serious consequences, ranging from minor damage up to total collapse. Therefore, researchers try to mitigate the pounding problem using different methods, such as coupling the adjacent buildings with stiff beams, connecting them using viscoelastic links, and installing damping devices in each building individually. In the current paper, the effect of using linear and nonlinear fluid viscous dampers to mitigate the mutual pounding between a series of structures is investigated. Nonlinear finite-element analysis of a series of adjacent steel buildings equipped with damping devices was conducted. Contact surfaces with both contactor and target were used to model the mutual pounding. The results indicate that the use of linear or nonlinear dampers leads to the significant reduction in the response of adjacent buildings in series. Moreover, the substantial improvement of the performance of buildings has been observed for almost all stories. From the design point of view, it is concluded that dampers implemented in adjacent buildings should be designed to resist maximum force of 6.20 or 1.90 times the design independent force in the case of using linear or nonlinear fluid viscous dampers, respectively. Also, designers should pay attention to the design of the structural elements surrounding dampers, because considerable forces due to pounding may occur in the dampers at the maximum displaced position of the structure.


Author(s):  
Akira Fukukita ◽  
Tomoo Saito ◽  
Keiji Shiba

We study the control effect for a 20-story benchmark building and apply passive or semi-active control devices to the building. First, the viscous damping wall is selected as a passive control device which consists of two outer plates and one inner plate, facing each other with a small gap filled with viscous fluid. The damping force depends on the interstory velocity, temperature and the shearing area. Next, the variable oil damper is selected as a semi-active control device which can produce the control forces by little electrical power. We propose a damper model in which the damping coefficient changes according to both the response of the damper and control forces based on an LQG feedback and feedforward control theory. It is demonstrated from the results of a series of simulations that the both passive device and semi-active device can effectively reduce the response of the structure in various earthquake motions.


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