Semi-active fuzzy based control system for vibration reduction of a SDOF structure under seismic excitation

This paper presents the application of a semi-active fuzzy based control system for seismic response reduction of a single degree-of-freedom (SDOF) framed structure using a Magnetorheological (MR) damper. Semi-active vibration control with MR dampers has been shown to be a viable approach to protect building structures from earthquake excitation. Moreover, intelligent damping systems based on soft-computing techniques such as fuzzy logic models have the inherent robustness to deal with typical uncertainties and non-linearities present in civil engineering structures. Thus, the proposed semi-active control system uses fuzzy logic based models to simulate the behavior of MR damper and also to develop the control algorithm that computes the required control signal to command the actuator. The results of the numerical simulations show the effectiveness of the suggested semi-active control system in reducing the response of the SDOF structure.