Adaptive Backstepping Control Design for Semi-Active Suspension of Half-Vehicle With Magnetorheological Damper

This paper investigates the problem of controlling half-vehicle semi-active suspension system involving a magnetorheological(MR)damper.This features a hysteretic behavior that is presently captured through the nonlinear Bouc-Wen model.The control objective is to regulate well the heave and the pitch motions of the chassis despite the road irregularities.The difficulty of the control problem lies in the nonlinearity of the system model,the uncertainty of some of its parameters,and the inaccessibility to measurements of the hysteresis internal state variables.Using Lyapunov control design tools,we design two observers to get online estimates of the hysteresis internal states and a stabilizing adaptive state-feedback regulator.The whole adaptive controller is formally shown to meet the desired control objectives.This theoretical result is confirmed by several simulations demonstrating the supremacy of the latter compared to the skyhook control and passive suspension.

Experimental Study on Magnetorheological Damper for Semi-Active Vibration Control of Civil Infrastructures

Magnetorheological (MR) fluid is a kind of smart material whose rheological properties can be rapidly varied in magnetic field. To make full use of the advantages of MR fluid to devices, a model of double ended, shear combined and valve typed MR damper is designed and manufactured, and the dynamic properties under sinusoidal excitations are experimentally studied. The experiment results show that the maximum damping force of the MR damper at the full magnetic intensity reaches about 20 kN while the maximum power required is less than 50 W, which predicts that the MR damper will be a powerful measurement for semi active vibration control of civil infrastructures.

A new controller for the semi-active suspension system with magnetorheological dampers

A new sliding mode controller for semi-active suspension system with magnetorheological (MR) damper is presented in this paper. In the proposed sliding mode controller, a semi-active suspension based on the skyhook damper system is chosen as the reference model to be followed, and the control law is so determined that the asymptotically stable error dynamics occurs between the controlled state and the reference model state. Numerical simulations are carried out to study the performance of the new sliding mode controller. The results show that the proposed controller yields almost perfect tracking to the reference model and has a high robustness against model parameter uncertainties and disturbances.

Experimental Investigation and Semi-Active Control Design of A Magnetorheological Engine Mount

In this paper;the dynamic characteristics of a semi-active magnetorheological fluid(MRF)engine mount are studied.To do so,the performance of the MRF engine mount is experimentally examined in higher frequencies(50~170 Hz)and the various amplitudes(0.01~0.2 mm).In such an examination,an MRF engine mount along with its magnetically biased is fabricated and successfully measured.In addition,the natural frequencies of the system are obtained by standard hammer modal test.For modelling the behavior of the system,a mass-spring-damper model with tuned PID coefficients based on Pessen integral of absolute error method is used.The parameters of such a model including mass,damping ratio,and stiffness are identified with the help of experimental modal tests and the recursive least square method(RLS).It is shown that using PID controller leads to reducing the vibration transmissibility in the resonance frequency(=93.45 Hz)with respect to the typical passive engine mount by a factor of 58%.The average of the vibration transmissibility decreasing is also 43%within frequency bandwidth(50~170 Hz).

Trust-region based instantaneous optimal semi-active control of long-span spatially extended structures with MRF-04K damper

In the field of civil engineering, magnetorheological fluid （MRF） damper-based semi-active control systems have received considerable attention for use in protecting structures from natural hazards such as strong earthquakes and high winds. In this paper, the MRF damper-based semi-active control system is applied to a long-span spatially extended structure and its feasibility is discussed. Meanwhile, a _trust-region method based instantaneous optimal semi-active control algorithm （TIOC） is proposed to improve the performance of the semi-active control system in a multiple damper situation. The proposed TIOC describes the control process as a bounded constraint optimization problem, in which an optimal semi- active control force vector is solved by the trust-region method in every control step to minimize the structural responses. A numerical example of a railway station roof structure installed with MRF-04K dampers is presented. First, a modified Bouc- Wen model is utilized to describe the behavior of the selected MRF-04K damper. Then, two semi-active control systems, including the well-known clipped-optimal controller and the proposed TIOC controller, are considered. Based on the characteristics of the long-span spatially extended structure, the performance of the control system is evaluated under uniform earthquake excitation and travelling-wave excitation with different apparent velocities. The simulation results indicate that the MR fluid damper-based semi-active control systems have the potential to mitigate the responses of full-scale long-span spatially extended structures under earthquake hazards. The superiority of the proposed TIOC controller is demonstrated by comparing its control effectiveness with the clipped-optimal controller for several different cases.

Study on semi-active control of mega-sub controlled structure by MR damper subject to random wind loads

The recently proposed mega-sub controlled structure （MSCS）, a new type of structure associated with the design and construction of super-tall buildings, has attracted the attention of designers for use in enhancing the control effectiveness in mega-frame buildings. In this paper, a dynamic equation and method to assemble parameter matrixes for a mega-sub controlled structure under random wind loads is presented. Semi-active control using magnetorheological dampers for the MSCS under random wind loads is investigated, and is compared with a corresponding system without dampers. A parametric study of the relative stiffness ratio and relative mass ratio between the mega-frame and the substructures, as well as the additional column stiffness ratio that influences the response control effectiveness of the MSCS, is discussed. The studies reveal, for the first time, that different control mechanisms exist. The results indicate that the proposed structure employing semi-active control can offer an effective control mechanism. Guidelines for selecting parameters are provided based on the analytical study.

Adaptive Control of Helicopter Ground Resonance with Magnetorheological Damper

The methodology for adaptive control of helicopter ground resonance with magnetorheological （MR） damper is presented. The adaptive inverse control method is used to control the output damping force of MR damper and the range of the damping force is given. Through the adaptive inverse control, the damping force of MR damper is fit to a desired damping force. With the background of applying MR damper to control of helicopter ground resonance, a model of loss force and an adaptive arithmetic for stabilization of the coupled rotor/fuselage system are presented. The simulation shows that the controller presented in this paper can stabilize the rotor/fuselage coupling system quickly and control the helicopter ground resonance effectively.

Semi-active Sliding Mode Control of Vehicle Suspension with Magneto-rheological Damper

The vehicle semi-active suspension with magneto-theological damper（MRD） has been a hot topic since this decade, in which the robust control synthesis considering load variation is a challenging task. In this paper, a new semi-active controller based upon the inverse model and sliding mode control （SMC） strategies is proposed for the quarter-vehicle suspension with the magneto-rheological （MR） damper, wherein an ideal skyhook suspension is employed as the control reference model and the vehicle sprung mass is considered as an uncertain parameter. According to the asymptotical stability of SMC, the dynamic errors between the plant and reference systems are used to derive the control damping force acquired by the MR quarter-vehicle suspension system. The proposed modified Bouc-wen hysteretic force-velocity （F-v） model and its inverse model of MR damper, as well as the proposed continuous modulation （CM） filtering algorithm without phase shift are employed to convert the control damping force into the direct drive current of the MR damper. Moreover, the proposed semi-active sliding mode controller （SSMC）-based MR quarter-vehicle suspension is systematically evaluated through comparing the time and frequency domain responses of the sprung and unsprung mass displacement accelerations, suspension travel and the tire dynamic force with those of the passive quarter-vehicle suspension, under three kinds of varied amplitude harmonic, rounded pulse and real-road measured random excitations. The evaluation results illustrate that the proposed SSMC can greatly suppress the vehicle suspension vibration due to uncertainty of the load, and thus improve the ride comfort and handling safety. The study establishes a solid theoretical foundation as the universal control scheme for the adaptive semi-active control of the MR full-vehicle suspension decoupled into four MR quarter-vehicle sub-suspension systems.

Skyhook-based Semi-active Control of Full-vehicle Suspension with Magneto-rheological Dampers

The control study of vehicle semi-active suspension with magneto-rheological (MR) dampers has been attracted much attention internationally. However, a simple, real time and easy implementing semi-active controller has not been proposed for the MR full-vehicle suspension system, and a systematic analysis method has not been established for evaluating the multi-objective suspension performances of MR full-vehicle vertical, pitch and roll motions. For this purpose, according to the 7-degree of freedom (DOF) fullvehicle dynamic system, a generalized 7-DOF MR and passive full-vehicle dynamic model is set up by employing the modified Boucwen hysteretic force-velocity (F-v) model of the MR damper. A semi-active controller is synthesized to realize independent control of the four MR quarter-vehicle sub-suspension systems in the full-vehicle, which is on the basis of the proposed modified skyhook damping scheme of MR quarter-vehicle sub-suspension system. The proposed controller can greatly simplify the controller design complexity of MR full-vehicle suspension and has merits of easy implementation in real application, wherein only absolute velocities of sprung and unsprung masses with reference to the road surface are required to measure in real time when the vehicle is moving. Furthermore, a systematic analysis method is established for evaluating the vertical, pitch and roll motion properties of both MR and passive full-vehicle suspensions in a more realistic road excitation manner, in which the harmonic, rounded pulse and real road measured random signals with delay time are employed as different road excitations inserted on the front and rear two wheels, by considering the distance between front and rear wheels in full-vehicle. The above excitations with different amplitudes are further employed as the road excitations inserted on left and right two wheels for evaluating the roll motion property. The multi-objective suspension performances of ride comfort and handling safety of the proposed MR full-vehicle suspension are thus thoroughly evaluated by comparing with those of the passive full-vehicle suspension. The results show that the proposed controller can ideally improve multiobjective suspension performances of the ride comfort and handling safety. The proposed harmonic, rounded pulse and real road measured random signals with delay time and asymmetric amplitudes are suitable for accurately analyzing the vertical, pitch and roll motion properties of MR full-vehicle suspension system in a more realistic road excitation manner. This research has important theoretical significance for improving application study on the intelligent MR semi-active suspension.

SEMI-ACTIVE CONTROL OF VEHICLE SUSPENSION WITH MAGNETO-RHEOLOGICAL DAMPERS:PART Ⅰ——CONTROLLER SYNTHESIS AND EVALUATION

A modified skyhook-based semi-active controller is proposed for implementing an asymmetric control suspension design with symmetric magneto-rheological （MR） dampers. The controller is formulated in current form, which is modulated by integrating a continuous modulation and an asymmetric damping force generation algorithms, so as to effectively minimize switching and hysteretic effects from the MR-damper. The proposed controller is implemented with a quarter-vehicle MR-suspension model, and its relative response characteristics are thus evaluated in terms of defined performance measures under varying amplitude harmonic, rounded pulse and random excitations. The sensitivity of the semi-active suspension performance to variations in controller parameters is thoroughly evaluated. The results illustrate that the proposed skyhook-based asymmetric semi-active MR-suspension controller has superior robustness on the system parameter variations, and can achieve desirable multi-objective suspension performance.

Semi-Active Control of Wave-Induced Vibration for Offshore Platforms by Use of MR Damper

The objective of the present research is to examine the effectiveness of the lateral vibration control of wave-excited response of offshore platforms with magneto-rheological (MR) damper. In this study, the offshore platform is simplified to be a singled degree-of-freedom (SDOF) system by extracting the first vibration mode of the structure. The external 'generalized' wave force is determined with a white noise via a designed filter. A semi-active control method based on optimal control theory is proposed considering that the yield stress of the MR damper can he varied continuously within a certain range. The dynamics of SDOF structure coupled with the MR damper is investigated. Numerical simulation demonstrates that the MR damper with this control strategy can significantly reduce the maximum responses and the root-mean-square (RMS) values.

SEMI-ACTIVE CONTROL OF VEHICLE SUSPENSION WITH MAGNETO-RHEOLOGICAL DAMPERS PARTⅡ——EVALUATION OF SUSPENSION PERFORMANCE

The design and analysis of an intelligent vehicle suspension with MR dampers should address hybrid semi-active control goals, such as rejection of current-switching discontinuity and MR-damper hysteresis, asymmetric damping from the symmetric MR-damper design, robustness on the vehicle operation parameter uncertainties and consideration of essential multiple suspension goals. Following the proposed skyhook-based asymmetric semi-active controller （Part I ） for achieving the above goals, herein, a set of suspension performance measures and three kinds of varying amplitude harmonic, rounded pulse and really measured random excitations are systematically defined, and the sensitivity of quarter-vehicle MR-suspension performance to variations in operating conditions is thoroughly analyzed. The results illustrate that the proposed skyhook-based semi-active MR-suspension in the asymmetric mode yields relatively superior dynamic responses to meet the multiple suspension performances of ride, rattle space, road-holding and dynamic tire force transmitted to the pavement, and has desirable robustness on variations in operating conditions of vehicle load and speed and the road roughness.

Optimizing Control for Rotor Vibration with Magnetorheological Fluid Damper

The aim of this work is to analyze and design a control system for vibration reduction in a rotor system using a shear mode magnetorheological fluid(MRF)damper.A dynamic model of the MRF damper-rotor system was built and simulated in Matlab/Simulink to analyze the rotor vibration characteristics and the vibration reduction effect of the MRF damper.Based on the numerical simulation analysis,an optimizing control strategy using pattern search method was proposed and designed.The control system was constructed on a test rotor bench and experiment validations on the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy were conducted.Experimental results show that rotor vibration caused by unbalance can be well controlled whether in resonance region(70%)or in non-resonance region(30%).An irregular vibration amplitude jump can be suppressed with the optimization strategy.Furthermore,it is found that the rapidity of transient response and efficiency of optimizing technique depend on the pattern search step.The presented strategies and control system can be extended to multi-span(more than two or three spans)rotor system.It provides a powerful technical support for the extension and application in target and control for shafting vibration.

Smart Semi-active PID-ACO control strategy for tower vibration reduction in Wind Turbines with MR damper

Wind turbine technology is well known around the globe as an eco-friendly and eff ective renewable power source. However, this technology often faces reliability problems due to structural vibration. This study proposes a smart semi-active vibration control system using Magnetorheological (MR) dampers where feedback controllers are optimized with nature-inspired algorithms. Proportional integral derivative (PID) and Proportional integral (PI) controllers are designed to achieve the optimal desired force and current input for MR the damper. PID control parameters are optimized using an Ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithm. The eff ectiveness of the ACO algorithm is validated by comparing its performance with Ziegler-Nichols (Z-N) and particle swarm optimization (PSO). The placement of the MR damper on the tower is also investigated to ensure structural balance and optimal desired force from the MR damper. The simulation results show that the proposed semi-active PID-ACO control strategy can signifi cantly reduce vibration on the wind turbine tower under diff erent frequencies (i.e., 67%, 73%, 79% and 34.4% at 2 Hz, 3 Hz, 4.6 Hz and 6 Hz, respectively) and amplitudes (i.e. 50%, 58% and 67% for 50 N, 80 N, and 100 N, respectively). In this study, the simulation model is validated with an experimental study in terms of natural frequency, mode shape and uncontrolled response at the 1st mode. The proposed PID-ACO control strategy and optimal MR damper position is also implemented on a lab-scaled wind turbine tower model. The results show that the vibration reduction rate is 66% and 73% in the experimental and simulation study, respectively, at the 1st mode.

Uncertainty in the seismic performance of semi-active base isolation systems

In a conventional base isolation system,minimizing the seismic responses of the superstructure is always at the cost of increasing the isolator's response.The semi-active control of the isolator has been considered an effective solution to such a dilemma.It tunes the real-time properties of the isolator according to preset rules to further reduce the superstructure's seismic responses without increasing that of the isolator or vice versa.However,the number of ground motion records used to design and validate the controller,i.e.,the preset rules,in existing studies is usually very small and therefore is suspectable if it is adequate to address the significant uncertainty in the shaking of future earthquakes.This paper critically reviews the performance of the proportional-integralderivative(PID),linear-quadratic regulator(LQR),and fuzzy controllers in semi-active base isolation systems with magnetorheological(MR)dampers subjected to highly uncertain ground motion inputs through numerical simulations.The results show that the control performance of the controllers varies significantly with the increasing number of input records,suggesting the necessity of using at least 50 ground motion records to appropriately assess the performance uncertainty of semi-active base isolation systems.More importantly,the superior performance of the optimized controllers is not guaranteed if the system is subjected to ground motions that are new to the controller,even if the controller has been optimized for thousands of existing ground motions.It highlights the need of improving the adaptability of the semi-active systems for uncertain ground motion inputs.

Optimizing control of a two-span rotor system with magnetorheological fluid dampers

A control system aims at vibration reduction in a two-span rotor system with two shear mode magnetorheological （MRF） dampers is designed. A finite element model of the MRF damper- rotor system is built and used to analyze the rotor vibration characteristics. Based on Hooke and Jeeves algorithm and the numerical simulation analysis, an optimal appropriate controller is proposed and designed. Experimental results show that rotor vibration caused by unbalance is well controlled （ first critical speed region 37% , second critical speed region 42% ）. To reflect advantages of optimi- zing strategy presented and validate the intelligent optimization control technology, detailed experi- ments were developed on a two-span rotor-vibration-control platform. The influence on accuracy, rapidity and stability of optimizing control for rotor vibration are analyzed. It provides a powerful technical support for the extension and application in target and control for shafting vibration.

Electrorheological Damper and Its Application for Semi-Active Suspension System

A semi-active control of vehicle suspension system with eleetrorheolngieal （ER） damper is presented. ER fluid characteristics are introduced based on the Bingham plasticity model first. Then ER damper working force is given. Finally a quarter car model with ER damper is constructed. The skyhook control strategy is adopted to simulate the amplitude-frequency characteristics and the vibration of suspension system under random road excitation on the basis of ER damper characteristics. The response curves of the vertical acceleration, the suspension dynamic working space and the tyre dynamic loading are obtained. Simulation results show that the acceleration is reduced effectively and then the ride comfort is improved by the skyhook control law.

Development and Control of a Magnetorheological Damper‑Based Brake Pedal Simulator for Vehicle Brake‑by‑Wire Systems

Recent developments have demonstrated that the brake pedal simulator(BPS)is becoming an indispensable apparatus for the break-by-wire systems in future electric vehicles.Its main function is to provide the driver with a comfortable pedal feel to improve braking safety and comfort.This paper presents the development and control of an adjustable BPS,using a disk-type magnetorheological(MR)damper as the passive braking reaction generator to simulate the traditional pedal feel.A detailed description of the mechanical design of the MR damper-based BSP(MRDBBPS)is presented in this paper.Several basic performance experiments on the MRDBBPS prototype are conducted.A returnto-zero(RTZ)algorithm is proposed to avoid hysteresis and improve the repeatability of the pedal force.In addition,an RTZ algorithm-based real-time current-tracking controller(RTZRC)is designed in consideration of the response lag of the coil circuit.Finally,an experimental system is established by integrating the MRDBBPS prototype into a selfdeveloped automotive MR braking test bench(AMRBTB),and several control and braking experiments are performed.This research proposes a RTZRC control algorithm which can significantly increase the tracking accuracy of the brake pedal characteristic curve,particularly at a high pedal velocity.Additionally,the designed MRDBBPS prototype can achieve an effective and favorable control of the AMRBTB with a good repeatability.

Semi-active predictive control strategy for seismically excited structures using MRF-04K dampers

The theoretical study of a semi-active predictive control(SAPC) system with magnetorheological(MR) dampers to reduce the responses of seismically excited structures was presented.The SAPC scheme is based on a prediction model of the system response to obtain the control actions by minimizing an object function,which has a function of self-compensation for time delay occurring in real application.A double-ended shear mode combined with a valve mode MR damper,named MRF-04K damper,with the maximum force of 20 kN was designed and manufactured,and parameters of the Bouc-Wen hysteresis model were determined to portray the behavior of this damper.As an example,a 5-story building frame equipped with 2 MRF-04K dampers was presented to demonstrate the performance of the proposed SAPC scheme for addressing time delay and reducing the structural responses under different earthquakes.Comparison with the uncontrolled structure,the passive-off and passive-on cases indicates that both the peak and the norm values of structural responses are all clearly reduced,and the SAPC scheme has a better performance than the two passive cases.

Seismic control of multi-degrees-of-freedom structures by vertical mass isolation method using MR dampers

Vertical mass isolation(VMI)is one of the novel methods for the seismic control of structures.In this method,the entire structure is assumed to consist of two mass and stiffness subsystems,and an isolated layer is located among them.In this study,the magnetorheological damper in three modes:passive-off,passive-on,and semi-active mode with variable voltage between zero and 9 volts was used as an isolated layer between two subsystems.Multi-degrees-of-freedom structures with 5,10,and 15 floors in two dimensions were examined under 11 pairs of near field earthquakes.On each level,the displacement of MR dampers was taken into account.The responses of maximum displacement,maximum inter-story drift,and maximum base shear in controlled and uncontrolled buildings were compared to assess the suggested approach for seismic control of the structures.According to the results,the semi-active control method can reduce the response by more than 12%compared to the uncontrolled mode in terms of maximum displacement of the mass subsystem of the structures.This method can reduce more than 16%and 20%of the responses compared to the uncontrolled mode in terms of maximum inter-story drift and base shear of the structure,respectively.