Electromagnetic energy harvesting from structural vibrations during earthquakes

Songye Zhu,Wenai Shen,Hong-Ping Zhu,You-Lin Xu 국제구조공학회 2016 Smart Structures and Systems, An International Jou Vol.18 No.3

Energy harvesting is an emerging technique that extracts energy from surrounding environments to power low-power devices. For example, it can potentially provide sustainable energy for wireless sensing networks (WSNs) or structural control systems in civil engineering applications. This paper presents a comprehensive study on harvesting energy from earthquake-induced structural vibrations, which is typically of low frequency, to power WSNs. A macroscale pendulum-type electromagnetic harvester (MPEH) is proposed, analyzed and experimentally validated. The presented predictive model describes output power dependence with mass, efficiency and the power spectral density of base acceleration, providing a simple tool to estimate harvested energy. A series of shaking table tests in which a single-storey steel frame model equipped with a MPEH has been carried out under earthquake excitations. Three types of energy harvesting circuits, namely, a resistor circuit, a standard energy harvesting circuit (SEHC) and a voltage-mode controlled buck-boost converter were used for comparative study. In ideal cases, i.e., resistor circuit cases, the maximum electric energy of 8.72 J was harvested with the efficiency of 35.3%. In practical cases, the maximum electric energy of 4.67 J was extracted via the buck-boost converter under the same conditions. The predictive model on output power and harvested energy has been validated by the test data.

Nonlinear impact of negative stiffness dampers on stay cables

Shi, Xiang,Zhu, Songye Techno-Press 2018 Structural monitoring and maintenance Vol.5 No.1

Negative stiffness dampers (NSDs) have been proven an efficient solution to vibration control of stay cables. Although previous studies usually assumed a linear negative stiffness behavior of NSDs, many negative stiffness devices produce negative stiffness with nonlinear behavior. This paper systematically evaluates the impact of nonlinearity in negative stiffness on vibration control performance for stay cables. A linearization method based on energy equivalent principle is proposed, and subsequently, the impact of two types of nonlinear stiffness, namely, displacement hardening and softening stiffness, is evaluated. Through the Hilbert transform (HT) of free vibration responses, the effects of nonlinear stiffness of an NSD on the modal frequencies, damping ratios and frequency response functions of a stay cable is also investigated. The HT analysis results validate the accuracy of the linearization method.

Vibration suppression in high-speed trains with negative stiffness dampers

Shi, Xiang,Zhu, Songye,Ni, Yi-qing,Li, Jianchun Techno-Press 2018 Smart Structures and Systems, An International Jou Vol.21 No.5

This work proposes and investigates re-centering negative stiffness dampers (NSDs) for vibration suppression in high-speed trains. The merit of the negative stiffness feature is demonstrated by active controllers on a high-speed train. This merit inspires the replacement of active controllers with re-centering NSDs, which are more reliable and robust than active controllers. The proposed damper design consists of a passive magnetic negative stiffness spring and a semi-active positioning shaft for re-centering function. The former produces negative stiffness control forces, and the latter prevents the amplification of quasi-static spring deflection. Numerical investigations verify that the proposed re-centering NSD can improve ride comfort significantly without amplifying spring deflection.

Displacement-based design approach for highway bridges with SMA isolators

Jin-long Liu,Songye Zhu,You-lin Xu,Yunfeng Zhang 국제구조공학회 2011 Smart Structures and Systems, An International Jou Vol.8 No.2

As a practical and effective seismic resisting technology, the base isolation system has seen extensive applications in buildings and bridges. However, a few problems associated with conventional leadrubber bearings have been identified after historical strong earthquakes, e.g., excessive permanent deformations of bearings and potential unseating of bridge decks. Recently the applications of shape memory alloys (SMA) have received growing interest in the area of seismic response mitigation. As a result, a variety of SMA-based base isolators have been developed. These novel isolators often lead to minimal permanent deformations due to the self-centering feature of SMA materials. However, a rational design approach is still missing because of the fact that conventional design method cannot be directly applied to these novel devices. In light of this limitation, a displacement-based design approach for highway bridges with SMA isolators is proposed in this paper. Nonlinear response spectra, derived from typical hysteretic models for SMA, are employed in the design procedure. SMA isolators and bridge piers are designed according to the prescribed performance objectives. A prototype reinforced concrete (RC) highway bridge is designed using the proposed design approach. Nonlinear dynamic analyses for different seismic intensity levels are carried out using a computer program called “OpenSees”. The efficacy of the displacement-based design approach is validated by numerical simulations. Results indicate that a properly designed RC highway bridge with novel SMA isolators may achieve minor damage and minimal residual deformations under frequent and rare earthquakes. Nonlinear static analysis is also carried out to investigate the failure mechanism and the self-centering ability of the designed highway bridge.

Adaptive-scale damage detection strategy for plate structures based on wavelet finite element model

Wen-Yu He,Songye Zhu 국제구조공학회 2015 Structural Engineering and Mechanics, An Int'l Jou Vol.54 No.2

An adaptive-scale damage detection strategy based on a wavelet finite element model (WFEM)for thin plate structures is established in this study. Equations of motion and corresponding lifting schemesfor thin plate structures are derived with the tensor products of cubic Hermite multi-wavelets as theelemental interpolation functions. Sub-element damages are localized by using of the change ratio of modalstrain energy. Subsequently, such damages are adaptively quantified by a damage quantification equationdeduced from differential equations of plate structure motion. WFEM scales vary spatially and changedynamically according to actual needs. Numerical examples clearly demonstrate that the proposed strategycan progressively locate and quantify plate damages. The strategy can operate efficiently in terms of thedegrees-of-freedom in WFEM and sensors in the vibration test.

Enhance the damping density of eddy current and electromagnetic dampers

Jin-Yang Li,Songye Zhu,Jiayang Shen 국제구조공학회 2019 Smart Structures and Systems, An International Jou Vol.24 No.1

Over the past decades, a great variety of dampers have been developed and applied to mechanical, aerospace, and civil structures to control structural vibrations. This study is focused on two emerging damper types, namely, eddy current dampers (ECDs) and electromagnetic damper (EMDs), both of which are regarded as promising alternatives to commonly-applied viscous fluid dampers (VFDs) because of their similar mechanical behavior. This study aims to enhance the damping densities of ECDs and EMDs, which are typically lower than those of VFDs, by proposing new designs with multiple improvement measures. The design configurations, mechanisms, and experimental results of the new ECDs and EMDs are presented in this paper. The further comparison based on the experimental results revealed that the damping densities of the proposed ECD and EMD designs are comparable to those of market-available VFDs. Considering ECDs and EMDs are solid-state dampers without fluid leakage problems, the results obtained in this study demonstrate a great prospect of replacing conventional VFDs with the improved ECDs and EMDs in future large-scale applications.

Adaptive-scale damage detection strategy for plate structures based on wavelet finite element model

He, Wen-Yu,Zhu, Songye Techno-Press 2015 Structural Engineering and Mechanics, An Int'l Jou Vol.54 No.2

An adaptive-scale damage detection strategy based on a wavelet finite element model (WFEM) for thin plate structures is established in this study. Equations of motion and corresponding lifting schemes for thin plate structures are derived with the tensor products of cubic Hermite multi-wavelets as the elemental interpolation functions. Sub-element damages are localized by using of the change ratio of modal strain energy. Subsequently, such damages are adaptively quantified by a damage quantification equation deduced from differential equations of plate structure motion. WFEM scales vary spatially and change dynamically according to actual needs. Numerical examples clearly demonstrate that the proposed strategy can progressively locate and quantify plate damages. The strategy can operate efficiently in terms of the degrees-of-freedom in WFEM and sensors in the vibration test.

Progressive damage detection of thin plate structures using wavelet finite element model updating

Wen-Yu He,Songye Zhu,Wei-Xin Ren 국제구조공학회 2018 Smart Structures and Systems, An International Jou Vol.22 No.3

In this paper, wavelet finite element model (WFEM) updating technique is employed to detect sub-element damage in thin plate structures progressively. The procedure of WFEM-based detection method, which can detect sub-element damage gradually, is established. This method involves the optimization of an objective function that combines frequencies and modal assurance criteria (MAC). During the damage detection process, the scales of wavelet elements in the concerned regions are adaptively enhanced or reduced to remain compatible with the gradually identified damage scenarios, while the modal properties from the tests remains the same, i.e., no measurement point replacement or addition are needed. Numerical and experimental examples were conducted to examine the effectiveness of the proposed method. A scanning Doppler laser vibrometer system was employed to measure the plate mode shapes in the experimental study. The results indicate that the proposed method can detect structural damage with satisfactory accuracy by using minimal degrees-of-freedoms (DOFs) in the model and minimal updating parameters in optimization.

Progressive damage detection of thin plate structures using wavelet finite element model updating

He, Wen-Yu,Zhu, Songye,Ren, Wei-Xin Techno-Press 2018 Smart Structures and Systems, An International Jou Vol.22 No.3

In this paper, wavelet finite element model (WFEM) updating technique is employed to detect sub-element damage in thin plate structures progressively. The procedure of WFEM-based detection method, which can detect sub-element damage gradually, is established. This method involves the optimization of an objective function that combines frequencies and modal assurance criteria (MAC). During the damage detection process, the scales of wavelet elements in the concerned regions are adaptively enhanced or reduced to remain compatible with the gradually identified damage scenarios, while the modal properties from the tests remains the same, i.e., no measurement point replacement or addition are needed. Numerical and experimental examples were conducted to examine the effectiveness of the proposed method. A scanning Doppler laser vibrometer system was employed to measure the plate mode shapes in the experimental study. The results indicate that the proposed method can detect structural damage with satisfactory accuracy by using minimal degrees-of-freedoms (DOFs) in the model and minimal updating parameters in optimization.

A wavelet finite element-based adaptive-scale damage detection strategy

He, Wen-Yu,Zhu, Songye,Ren, Wei-Xin Techno-Press 2014 Smart Structures and Systems, An International Jou Vol.14 No.3

This study employs a novel beam-type wavelet finite element model (WFEM) to fulfill an adaptive-scale damage detection strategy in which structural modeling scales are not only spatially varying but also dynamically changed according to actual needs. Dynamical equations of beam structures are derived in the context of WFEM by using the second-generation cubic Hermite multiwavelets as interpolation functions. Based on the concept of modal strain energy, damage in beam structures can be detected in a progressive manner: the suspected region is first identified using a low-scale structural model and the more accurate location and severity of the damage can be estimated using a multi-scale model with local refinement in the suspected region. Although this strategy can be implemented using traditional finite element methods, the multi-scale and localization properties of the WFEM considerably facilitate the adaptive change of modeling scales in a multi-stage process. The numerical examples in this study clearly demonstrate that the proposed damage detection strategy can progressively and efficiently locate and quantify damage with minimal computation effort and a limited number of sensors.