Vibration control of railway bridges using magnetorheological dampers

In this study, the vibrations of a real railway bridge under moving loads are analyzed and these vibrations are suppressed using Magneto‐Rheological (MR) damper working with a fuzzy logic control algorithm. In the study, a real single‐span railway bridge with known parameters was selected and its structural parameters were used. In order to conduct dynamic vibration analysis, the bridge is modeled as simple support, homogeneous and cross‐section by using Euler‐Bernoulli beam theory. As a continuous system, the mathematical model bridge is discretized through the Petrov‐Galerkin method. It was aimed to suppress the vibrations by considering that two MR dampers are placed symmetrically and diagonal to the ends of the bridge. MR dampers are controlled in the simulation through the fuzzy logic control algorithm. Bridge vibrations have been performed in various scenarios for different speeds and loads of the vehicle. As a result of these analyses, the displacement, velocity and acceleration values on the bridge subjected to moving load have been investigated both in time and frequency domain with and without the controller. The responses obtained from both areas revealed the performance of the applied semi‐active control.