Analysis of hybrid viscous damper by real time hybrid simulations

Results from real time hybrid simulations are compared to full numerical simulations for a hybrid viscous damper, composed of a viscous dashpot in series with an active actuator and a load cell. By controlling the actuator displacement via filtered integral force feedback the damping performance of the hybrid viscous damper is improved, while for pure integral force feedback the damper stroke is instead increased. In the real time hybrid simulations viscous damping is emulated by a bang-bang controlled Magneto-Rheological (MR) damper. The controller activates high-frequency modes and generates drift in the actuator displacement, and only a fraction of the measured damper force can therefore be used as input to the investigated integral force feedback in the real time hybrid simulations.