A new simple non-linear hysteretic model for MR damper and verification of seismic response reduction experiment

• A new simple non-linear hysteretic model for MR damper is proposed.
• Hysteretic characteristics are obtained by mechanical test of RD1097 type MR damper.
• The model parameters are identified, and the modeling accuracy is demonstrated.
• Seismic response reduction experiment verifies the effectiveness of this model.

Non-linear hysteresis is a complicated mechanical characteristic for magneto-rheological (MR) damper. In this paper, a new simple non-linear hysteretic model for MR damper is proposed to represent the hysteretic behavior. First, the force–displacement and force–velocity loops under a range of currents, amplitudes and frequencies are obtained by mechanical behavior test of a RD1097 type MR damper. Then the model’s parameters are identified by the non-linear least square method from test data and fitted by the polynomials as functions of the supplied current. Finally, the accuracy and the effectiveness of the model are demonstrated by the RMS errors comparison between the reconstructed hysteretic curves and the experimental ones, and further are verified by seismic response reduction experiment under three excitations including the sinusoidal wave, the Pingsheng Bridge earthquake wave and the El-Centro wave. The results show that the proposed model has higher accuracy than some of existing models with explicit functions and is easier to be identified than those models with non-linear differential equations. Therefore, the proposed model can be effectively applied to simulation analysis in engineering control subjected to frequency-fixed or random excitations.