Abstract

It is critically important to protect civil structures from unpredictable events, including earthquakes and strong winds, as well as maintaining their structural integrity and serviceability. To this end, considerable attention has been paid on the research and development of aseismic technology. This paper provides a literature review on the recent progress of Magnetorheological Elastomer (MRE) and the development and application of MRE devices on structure control technology. Firstly, this paper reviewed the investigations into the MR effect, mechanical property of MRE and its ingredients during the past decades. Then, research interests arising in the implementation and development of smart devices using MREs on structure control will be systematically reviewed. Basically, MRE base isolation and MRE based tuned mass damper are two major technologies to attenuate structural vibration, which will be the main focus of this paper.

Keywords: Magnetorheological elastomer, structural control, civil structures, aseismic technology, tuned mass damper, structural vibration.