Smart structure using piezoelectric actuator for semiactive control of wind and earthquake responses of buildings

摘要

Active/passive mass dampers for buildings are mainly used to improve habitability or human comfort in the buildings in the event of strong winds, and energy dissipation devices are mainly used to enhance the safety of the buildings in the event of strong earthquakes. However very few systems are useful for both of these purposes. As a system which can serve both purposes, a smart structure using an active brace system has been proposed. The active braces are installed in stories of a building and can vary the friction forces acting between the upper and lower floors of the stories using piezoelectric actuators. Thus the active braces work as friction controllable dampers or a variable stiffness system for semiactive response control of the building. Excitation tests were carried out for a single-story building model with a mass of 1150 kg supported by 4 columns. The active brace model equipped with a pair of piezoelectric actuators produced a friction force of up to 2.5 kN. Through the tests, it was shown that the response control by the active brace exhibited good performance throughout a wide range of excitation intensity.