Parametric identification of the Dahl model for large scale MR dampers

Magnetorheological (MR) dampers are promising control devices in civil engineering structures as they combine reliability and stability of passive systems while maintaining versatility of active devices without large power requirements. These dampers are intrinsically nonlinear, so one of the challenging aspects of applying this technology is the development of accurate models to describe their behaviour for control design and evaluation purposes. This paper deals with the parametric identification of three large-scale MR dampers which are modelled using the viscous + Dahl model. Experimental results show reasonably good agreement with the forces predicted by the identified models. Copyright (c)(c) 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.