Semi-Active Control of Seismic Behavior of Stationary Equipment Supporting Structures

Abstract eng:
In this study, a simple adaptive controller is developed to mitigate the responses of stationary equipment supporting structures subjected to seismic excitation. With a wide application in oil and gas industries, these structures are designed to safely support the operational and occasional loads of acceleration-sensitive industrial equipment, such as vessels and heat exchangers. Hence, mitigating the acceleration response of such structures can extensively improve the equipment's serviceability during strong ground motion events and prevents considerable financial loss. This study aims at providing a practical and efficient semi-active control scheme applicable to industrial plants by using accelerometers as measurement sensors, Magneto-Rheological (MR) dampers as semi-active actuators, and adaptive controllers which are robust against environmental and structural uncertainties. This enhancement leads to a more optimized and economically efficient structural design and also prevents the disasters like explosion and serious equipment damage caused by high values of acceleration and displacement responses during the earthquake. In order to investigate performance of the proposed control system, numerical studies are conducted on a large-scale model of 2-story structure (supporting two horizontal vessels) which is subjected to the various earthquake records. Results show a substantial reduction of the seismic responses under the effect of different ground motions.

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