Semi-active control of a cable-stayed bridge under multiple-support excitations

This paper presents a semi-active strategy for seismic protection of a benchmark cable-stayed bridge with consideration of multiple-support excitations. In this control strategy, Magnetorheological (MR) dampers are proposed as control devices, a LQG-clipped-optimal control algorithm is employed. An active control strategy, shown in previous researches to perform well at controlling the benchmark bridge when uniform earthquake motion was assumed, is also used in this study to control this benchmark bridge with consideration of multiple-support excitations. The performance of active control system is compared to that of the presented semi-active control strategy. Because the MR fluid damper is a con-trollable energy- dissipation device that cannot add mechanical energy to the structural system, the proposed control strategy is fail-safe in that bounded-input, bounded-output stability of the controlled structure is guaranteed. The numerical results demonstrated that the performance of the presented control design is nearly the same as that of the active control system; and that the MR dampers can effectively be used to control seismically excited cable-stayed bridges with multiple-support excitations.

Shaking table test and numerical simulation of an isolated cylindrical latticed shell under multiple-support excitations

In order to study the infl uence of the ground motion spatial eff ect on the seismic response of large span spatial structures with isolation bearings, a single-layer cylindrical latticed shell scale model with a similarity ratio of 1/10 was constructed. An earthquake simulation shaking table test on the response under multiple-support excitations was performed with the high-position seismic isolation method using high damping rubber (HDR) bearings. Small-amplitude sinusoidal waves and seismic wave records with various spectral characteristics were applied to the model. The dynamic characteristics of the model and the seismic isolation eff ect on it were analyzed at varying apparent wave velocities, namely infi nitely great, 1000 m/s, 500 m/s and 250 m/s. Besides, numerical simulations were carried out by Matlab software. According to the comparison results, the numerical results agreed well with the experimental data. Moreover, the results showed that the latticed shell roof exhibited a translational motion as a rigid body after the installation of the HDR bearings with a much lower natural frequency, higher damping ratio and only 1/2~1/8 of the acceleration response peak values. Meanwhile, the structural responses and the bearing deformations at the output end of the seismic waves were greatly increased under multiple-support excitations.