Nonlinear identification of semi-active control devices

Semi-active control devices have received significant attention in recent years because they offer the adaptability of active control devices without requiring large, external power sources. To take advantage of the unique features of these devices for structural response reduction, control-oriented models first must be determined. Model development and identification are challenging tasks due to inherent device nonlinearities. This paper examines the identification problem for a magnetorheological (MR) damper, a semi-active control device that is particularly promising for civil engineering applications. Based on a recently developed model of the MR damper, an output-error method is proposed to solve the model parameter identification problem.