Semi-active control of highway bridges with pounding effect by using magnetorheological dampers under earthquake excitations

摘要

Seismic pounding between the adjacent segments of the multi-span concrete highway bridges can result significant structural damage. The aim of this paper is to explore the possibility of implementing the semi-active control technology to mitigate the pounding of the highway bridges under severe earthquake excitations. The analysis of this study is focused on the highway bridges with base isolation systems. Mechanical model of the collision between the adjacent superstructure segments and the governing equation of motion of the highway bridges with pounding effect are firstly introduced, and the analytical model of highway bridges with a semi-active control system is presented by using the instantaneous optimal control algorithm for lighting the pounding of the structures. The results show that the semi-active control system can effectively reduce the structural pounding of the highway bridges under earthquake excitations if the semi-active control system was appropriately designed.