Large-scale real-time hybrid simulation for evaluation of advanced damping system performance

As magnetorheological (MR) control devices increase in scale for use in real-world civil engineering applications, sophisticated modeling and control techniques may be needed to exploit their unique characteristics. Here, a control algorithm that utilizes overdriving and backdriving current control to increase the efficacy of the control device is experimentally verified and evaluated at large scale. Real-time hybrid simulation (RTHS) is conducted to perform the verification experiments using the nees@Lehigh facility. The physical substructure of the RTHS is a 10-m tall planar steel frame equipped with a large-scale MR damper. Through RTHS, the test configuration is used to represent two code-compliant structures, and is evaluated under seismic excitation. The results from numerical simulation and RTHS are compared to verify the RTHS methodology. The global responses of the full system are used to assess the performance of each control algorithm. In each case, the reduction in peak and root mean square (RMS) responses (displacement, drift, acceleration, damper force, etc.) is examined. Beyond the verification tests, the robust performance of the damper controllers is also demonstrated using RTHS.