Real-Time Hybrid Testing of a Steel-Structure Equipped With Large-Scale Magneto-Rheological Dampers Applying Semi-Active Control Algorithms

This study introduces the quantitative evaluation of the seismic performance of a building structure equipped with MR dampers by using real-time hybrid testing method (RT-HYTEM). A real-scaled 5-story building is used as the numerical substructure, and MR dampers corresponding to an experimental substructure is physically tested by using UTM. First, the force required to drive the displacement of the story, at which the MR damper is located, is measured from the load cell attached to UTM. Then, the measured force is returned to a control computer to calculate the response of the numerical substructure. Finally, the experimental substructure is excited by UTM with the calculated response of the numerical substructure. The RT-HYTEM implemented in this study is validated for that the real-time hybrid testing results obtained by application of sinusoidal and earthquake excitations and the corresponding analytical results obtained by using the Bouc-Wen model as the control force of the MR damper respect to input currents were in good agreement. Furthermore, semi-active control algorithms were applied to the MR damper. The comparison results of experimental and numerical responses demonstrated that using RT-HYTEM was more reasonable in semi-active devices such as MR dampers having strong nonlinearity.