Model-based Fuzzy Control for Buildings Installed with Magneto-rheological Dampers

The article presents a model-based fuzzy controller design method for seismic response reduction of building structures using MR dampers. Firstly, the MR damper model is obtained as a fuzzy model using T-S fuzzy modeling technique; then, this model is integrated with the linear structural model to formulate a fuzzy system; at last, the optimal control strategy, such as GH ₂ (generalized H ₂ or energy-to-peak) control of which objective is to minimize the peak value of control output under energy-bounded disturbance, is applied to design the fuzzy controller. The advantage of this new control strategy is that the optimal control theory can be directly applied to design a fuzzy controller such that the closed-loop system stability and performance can be theoretically guaranteed. In addition, the command signal can be obtained directly from the measured feedback signals. A numerical example is used to validate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. It is confirmed by the simulations that the designed controller achieves better performance than existing semi-active control strategies such as clipped-optimal control and fuzzy control.