Anti-Windup LPV Control Design of MR Dampers for Structural Vibration Suppression

Magneto-rheological (MR) dampers that belong to the family of semi-active devices are widely used for vibration attenuation in space and civil engineering structures. In this paper, we study the use of MR dampers for seismic protection of a model two-story structure. A modified Bingham model of the MR damper is considered for linear parameter varying (LPV) modeling and control of the system. The main contribution of the paper is the design and experimental validation of an LPV anti-windup compensator to tackle the effect of actuator saturation on control design performance. The designed LPV anti-windup control scheme is advantageous from the implementation standpoint because it can be considered as an addition to the existing control system. Experimental results demonstrate the effective vibration suppression of the structure in the presence of the seismic excitation inputs by utilizing an LPV control strategy. An inner/outer loop control strategy is further developed and implemented considering the actuator saturation effect to reduce the control effort and saving the MR damper power consumption.