Seismic-vibration mitigation of a nonlinear structural system with an ATMD through a fuzzy PID controller

This paper discusses the design of fuzzy PID type controllers (FPIDC) to improve seismic control performance of a nonlinear structural system with an active tuned mass damper (ATMD) against earthquakes. Since structural systems have nonlinearities and uncertainties, fuzzy-based controllers are adequate because of their robust character and satisfactory performance in active structural control. The main advantages of this controller are the ability to handle nonlinearities and uncertainties effectively. In the literature, various structures for fuzzy PID (including PI and PD) controllers have been proposed. In order to obtain proportional, integral and derivative control actions altogether, it is intuitive and convenient to combine PI and PD actions to form a fuzzy PID controller. The simulated system has fifteen degrees of freedom and is modeled using nonlinear behavior of the base–structure interaction. The system is then simulated against the ground motion of the Northridge earthquake (M _w =6.7) in USA on 17 January, 1994. Finally, the time history of the storey displacements, accelerations, ATMD displacements, control voltage and frequency responses of both the uncontrolled and controlled cases are presented. The ground motion recorded of the El-Centro and Kocaeli earthquakes has been used to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed control algorithm. The robustness of the controller has been checked through the uncertainty in stiffness of the structure. Simulation results exhibit that superior vibration suppression is achieved by the use of designed fuzzy PID type controllers.