Semi-active control of three-story benchmark structure using a wireless sensor network

Control of structures in order to prevent serious damage to structures has become a prominent issue in earthquake engineering. In traditional structural control systems, wires were used to communicate between sensors, actuators, controllers and integrate the entire system as a single network. Using of wireless sensors for measurement, communication and control in structures has increased with the advancement of technology. The use of this technology has attracted the attention of engineers due to the reduction of installation costs and flexible system. In this article, the benchmark nonlinear three-story structure with magnetorheological damper (MR) equipped by wireless sensor network is investigated. The seismically excited building is combined with a wireless sensor network simulated by TOSSIM in the MATLAB simulator environment. For real network simulation, noise and wireless signals collected from a real structure have been used. In this network, a time division multiple access protocol (TDMA) is used. This protocol assigns a specific time to each sensor to send information. The benchmark structure is trained by a fuzzy-genetic controller. Then, the structure equipped with wire and wireless sensors was evaluated under the various earthquakes. Examining the evaluation criteria and time history charts shows the proper performance of the wireless system in reducing structural responses. At the same time, the wireless system has caused a slight increase in the average displacement and acceleration of floors compared to the wired mode.