Bio-Inspired Hydraulic Actuator for Improved Structural Control
- Technology Benefits
- Better structural control of buildings under high wind loadOutperforms optimized passive tuned mass dampers by 42% when implemented in a model structureAbility to be tuned quickly to adjust for structural changes
- Technology Application
- Structural control devicesTuned mass dampers, base isolation, and cross-bracingRetrofitting conventional tuned mass damper systems for improved performance
- Detailed Technology Description
- UC Santa Barbara researchers have designed a bio-inspired hydraulic passive actuator that can protect buildings from natural disasters. The proposed full-scale actuator provides a force-displacement curve similar to that used to protect biological organisms from natural hazards, but with maximum forces up to 100kN. This makes it suitable for full-scale structural control of buildings during windstorms and other natural hazards. The output force is fully adjustable, making the actuator suitable for a large range of structural control applications. Simulations and experiments have shown a 42% improved performance over the current state of the art passive tuned mass dampers. In addition, the device is fully passive so it does not require the use of external power, making it resilient and reliable.
- Others
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Background
There is a need for improved structural control devices to mitigate the impacts of natural hazards, such as windstorms, earthquakes, tsunamis and landslides, on civil and mechanical structures. Molecular actuators in bio-organisms do successfully mitigate these impacts on natural structures such as trees. Bio-Inspired Hydraulic Actuator scales up the molecular force used biologically by a factor of 10,000,000,000,000 to produce a practical actuator for use in civil and mechanical structures. This Bio-Inspired Hydraulic Actuator will be especially useful for controlling unwanted resonant vibrations of structures such as wind-driven vibrations of buildings.
Additional Technologies by these Inventors
Tech ID/UC Case
25645/2016-133-0
Related Cases
2016-133-0
- *Abstract
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A bio-inspired hydraulic passive actuator that can protect buildings from natural disasters.
- *Principal Investigator
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Name: Paul Hansma
Department:
Name: Isaac Kwon
Department:
Name: Connor Randall
Department:
Name: Henry Yang
Department:
- Country/Region
- USA
