Application of Centralized and Decentralized Control to Building Structure: Analytical Study

This paper presents both the centralized and decentralized control strategies by using semiactive control devices (magnetorheological dampers) for building structural control under seismic excitations. The control algorithms used in this study only focus on the linear quadratic Gaussian control theory with acceleration measurements as feedback signals. In the centralized control, the control force is generated directly from the measurement in each degree of freedom, while in the decentralized control, only measurement from local subsystems is used to calculate the control force with respect to the locations of control devices and measurements. Four groups of centralized/decentralized control algorithms are studied: fully centralized control, fully decentralized control, half-centralized control, and partially decentralized control. The ASCE 20-story benchmark building is selected as an example to evaluate the control performance among different control strategies.