Optimal bounded control for maximizing reliability of Duhem hysteretic systems

The optimal bounded control of stochastic-excited systems with Duhem hysteretic components for maximizing system reliability is investigated. The Duhem hysteretic force is transformed to energy-depending damping and stiffness by the energy dissipation balance technique. The controlled system is transformed to the equivalent non- hysteretic system. Stochastic averaging is then implemented to obtain the It5 stochastic equation associated with the total energy of the vibrating system, appropriate for eval- uating system responses. Dynamical programming equations for maximizing system re- liability are formulated by the dynamical programming principle. The optimal bounded control is derived from the maximization condition in the dynamical programming equation. Finally, the conditional reliability function and mean time of first-passage failure of the optimal Duhem systems are numerically solved from the Kolmogorov equations. The proposed procedure is illustrated with a representative example.

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.