Fuzzy variable structure control for buildings

In this paper, a new variable structure control method involving fuzzy adaptive regulation of reaching law is presented for seismically-excited building structures. The undue chattering effect, the major disadvantage of conventional variable structure controllers, has been avoided by introducing this new method without losing the robustness against parametric uncertainties and modelling inaccuracies. Finally we give numerical simulations for MDOF (Multiple-Degree-of-Freedom) shear building model containing an active brace system; and the simulation results show preliminarily that the new control method is quite effective: not only can it reduce the peak response of the ground motion, but also it can keep the chattering effect sufficiently low so as to ensure the system stable.