EACS 2016 Paper No. 153
In this study, control methods for a semi-active damper using an electro-adhesive gel (EAG) are analyzed. The modeling of an EAG damper is conducted on the basis of the approximation of the force–voltage relation obtained from experimental data. The performance of an EAG damper is evaluated by shaking-table tests of a two-story small-scale specimen. The specimen is designed to adjust the ratio between the first and second natural periods to that of a target real-scale base-isolated building, and the system parameters are identified on the basis of the vibration response under white noise excitation. An EAG damper is implemented to the base-isolation layer of the small-scale specimen. Acceleration sensors are attached to each layer to acquire the response data. A Kalman filter is employed as an observer in a control system, and the LQG strategy and disturbance accommodating control are advocated as a controller to apply a suitable input voltage to the EAG damper. The cost function of the LQG is formulated to suppress the acceleration response of the specimen. Experiments using other control methods, i.e., the simulated nonlinear spring and the simulated dashpot, are also conducted for comparison. With respect to the input excitation, scaled earthquake ground motion records are used. Based on the results of the shaking-table tests, we report the validity of the EAG damper and discuss effective control methods.
