Active Control for a Distributed Mass Damper System

Abstract

Recent developments of a distributed mass damper (DMD) system integrate structural and environmental control systems for buildings. This system simultaneously improves building safety and sustainability by using external shading fins as mass dampers, controlling the amount of sunlight coming into the building for energy efficiency, and reducing structural movements during strong motions. Unlike traditional mass dampers, which are usually placed at the tops of structures, the shading fin mass dampers (SFMDs) are distributed throughout structures because fins are placed along the entire heights of buildings. A recent paper by the authors shows that the passive DMD system is as effective in response mitigation as a conventional tuned mass damper (TMD). In this paper, active control strategies for mass damper control are analyzed and simulated to show further response reductions. Nonpassive controls are of interest for the SFMD system because actuators are already needed to control the positions of the shading fins to affect sunlight for energy efficiency. Several active control strategies [linear quadratic regulator (LQR)-based] are compared with an optimal passive strategy. A 20-story shear structure with 20 DMDs is used as a testbed for active control. The results illustrate that the active DMD system can outperform conventional active systems (e.g., a fully active system and a single active mass damper system) while using a similar level of control forces.