Shape memory alloys (SMAs) exhibit peculiar thermomechanical, thermoelectrical and thermochemical behaviors under mechanical, thermal, electrical and chemical conditions. Examples of these materials are Cu-based SMAs, NiTi SMAs, ferrous SMAs, shape memory ceramics and shape memory polymers. NiTi SMAs in particular, have unique thermomechanical behaviors such as shape memory effect and pseudoelasticity, which have made them attractive candidates for structural vibration control applications. Numerous studies have been conducted in modeling and applications of NiTi SMAs in structural vibration control. Several active, passive and hybrid energy absorption and vibration isolation devices have been developed utilizing NiTi SMAs. In this paper we present an overview of NiTi behaviors, modeling and applications as well as their limitations for structural vibration control and seismic isolation.

Hurricane damage inflicted upon coastal structures, particularly residential structures, results in millions of dollars in financial damage and loss of life each year. A major cause of this damage usually begins with roof uplifts of coastal structures; prevention of roof uplift helps mitigate damage to coastal structures by hurricanes. Development of more effective fastening mechanisms for the connections between the walls and the roofs of these structures will aid in damage reduction to coastal structures. Recent developments in the new field of auto-adaptive materials offer promising opportunities for developing radically new fastening mechanisms. One of the classes of materials in this category is shape memory alloys (SMAs). SMAs are very attractive for structural application because of their major constitutive behaviors such as pseudoelastic characteristics. The pseudoelastic behavior of NiTi SMAs is a unique hysteretic energy dissipation behavior which, combined with a very long fatigue life, makes NiTi a viable candidate for developing new fasteners. However, as a first step it is important to develop an in-depth understanding of NiTi behavior under dynamic loads. Research carried out in this area has been very limited in scope. Therefore, in this paper, eight different configurations of bracing systems, divided into two categories, are explored on a single degree of freedom (SDOF) structure to investigate the feasibility of developing devices for the mitigation of hurricane damage. These bracing devices basically utilize the hysteretic energy dissipation of NiTi resulting from its pseudoelastic characteristic. Since the main goal of this ongoing research is to develop a thorough understanding of the pseudoelastic and hysteretic behavior of SMAs under severe dynamic loading/excitation, a series of earthquake data has been considered as the source of excitation. Through this analysis both the damping and stiffening characteristics of NiTi wires and the effect of these dynamic characteristics on changing the dynamic response of the structure are studied. In the first category the NiTi wires are not pre-strained, while in the second category they are pre-strained. In each category, four different combinations of wire length and modeling of pseudoelastic behavior of NiTi wire are considered. A bilinear stress-strain model is used for representing the pseudoelastic behavior of NiTi tendons, capable of representing internal yield, internal recovery and trigger line concepts. This study establishes that hybrid tendons have the highest damping and stiffening effects on the structure. It is also concluded that, when the amplitude of excitation is small, tendons act as stiffening devices. Once the amplitude of the excitation is large enough to initiate stress-induced phase transformations, tendons act as energy absorption devices. These findings provide very useful information for the development of more effective fastening devices that can withstand severe dynamic loads, such as hurricane loadings.

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Health monitoring and damage detection strategies for base-excited structures typically rely on accurate models of the system dynamics. Restoring forces in these structures can exhibit highly non-linear characteristics, thus accurate non-linear system identification is critical. Parametric system identification approaches are commonly used, but require a priori knowledge of restoring force characteristics. Non-parametric approaches do not require this a priori information, but they typically lack direct associations between the model and the system dynamics, providing limited utility for health monitoring and damage detection. In this paper a novel system identification approach, the intelligent parameter varying (IPV) method, is used to identify constitutive non-linearities in structures subject to seismic excitations. IPV overcomes the limitations of traditional parametric and non-parametric approaches, while preserving the unique benefits of each. It uses embedded radial basis function networks to estimate the constitutive characteristics of inelastic and hysteretic restoring forces in a multi-degree-of-freedom structure. Simulation results are compared to those of a traditional parametric approach, the prediction error method. These results demonstrate the effectiveness of TPY in identifying highly non-linear restoring forces, without a priori information, while preserving a direct association with the structural dynamics.

Most structural health monitoring and damage detection strategies utilize dynamic response information to identify the existence, location, and magnitude of damage. Traditional model-based techniques seek to identify parametric changes in a linear dynamic model, while non-model-based techniques focus on changes in the temporal and frequency characteristics of the system response. Because restoring forces in base-excited structures can exhibit highly non-linear characteristics, non-linear model-based approaches may be better suited for reliable health monitoring and damage detection. This paper presents the application of a novel intelligent parameter varying (TPY) modeling and system identification technique, developed by the authors, to detect damage in base-excited structures. This TPY technique overcomes specific limitations of traditional model-based and non-model-based approaches, as demonstrated through comparative simulations with wavelet analysis methods. These simulations confirm the effectiveness of the TPY technique, and show that performance is not compromised by the introduction of realistic structural non-linearities and ground excitation characteristics.