When a spacecraft lands, a large shock load can lead to undesirable responses such as rebound and tripping. The authors previously discussed the problem of controlling these shock responses using momentum exchange impact dampers. An active/passive hybrid momentum exchange impact damper, which included an active actuator, was proposed. Themomentum exchange impact dampers’ performances are evalua...

A method is suggested to reduce the structural seismic response using viscous dampers with their effect magnified with mechanical levers ~lever arms!. The lever arms are used to magnify the drift and the drift velocities transferred from the structure to the dampers thus producing larger energy dissipation in smaller devices. The increase of energy dissipation in each unit results in a reductio...

Semi-active control devices have received significant attention in recent years because they offer the adaptability of active control devices without requiring the associated large power sources. Magnetorheological (MR) dampers are semi-active control devices that use MR fluids to produce controllable dampers. They potentially offer highly reliable operation and can be viewed as fail-safe in th...

A method is suggested to reduce structural response to earthquakes using viscous dampers with their effect magnified by mechanical levers (lever arms). The lever arms are used to magnify the drift and the drift velocities transferred from the structure to the dampers thus producing in larger energy dissipation. An optimal design procedure based on the LQR technique is proposed in this study to ...

For reusable and expendable launch vehicles as well as for other spacecraft structural vibration loads are safety critical design drivers impacting mass and lifetime. Here, the improvement of reliability and safety, the reduction of mass, the extension of service life, as well as the reduction of cost for manufacturing are desired. Spacecraft structural design in general is a compromise between...

Abstract This paper investigates the influence of typical gravity connections on seismic demands steel concentrically braced frame (CBF) buildings with friction dampers as dissipative floor connectors. The investigated include (i) shear tab, (ii) clip angle, (iii) flush end‐plate and (iv) tab bottom T‐stub. It is shown that behavior framing system (GFS) practically insensitive to connection typ...

In recent years, destructive earthquakes have shown the deficiencies of the existing buildings. One of the most effective mechanisms for dissipating the earthquake energy is inelastic deformation of the steel components. The objective of this research is to study the application of metallic dampers for dissipation of the earthquake energy and to investigate the behavior of concrete structures i...

This paper presents the design of second-order sliding mode controllers for semi-active control using magneto-rheological (MR) dampers. The approach can be useful in applications involving shock absorbers but here our main concern is the suppression of building vibrations induced by dynamic loadings such as earthquakes or strong winds. The MR dampers have been of increasing interest in structur...