On equivalent passive structural control systems for semi-active control using viscous fluid dampers

In this paper, the capabilities of passive control of structures using hydraulic fluid dampers are compared to those of semi-active control. It is demonstrated that, in most cases, the performance achieved by a properly designed passive control system can be comparable to that of semi-active systems that use the state-of-the-art control algorithms. It is also shown that the optimum damping coefficients for passive control may be much smaller titan the maximum values considered in semi-active control. These conclusions are supported by numerical simulations of several structures, including a case of actual implementation of semi-active control in it building structure. Copyright (C) 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.