Comparison of semi-active control strategies for rocking objects under pulse and harmonic excitations

Recently, a considerable literature has grown up around the theme of seismic protection of rigid blocks, with a special focus on strategies to reduce the overturning vulnerability due to rocking motion. The present paper investigates a semi-active control method for rocking blocks and compares different strategies for its implementation. In more detail, a feedback control algorithm was developed to adjust the stiffness of the restraints placed at the two lower corners of the block. The utility of the proposed control was quantified through “ad hoc” indices derived from overturning spectra. The performance of a feedback strategy was numerically investigated and specific simulations were performed to quantify the control method degradation when implemented for a real-world application. Finally, the stability of the block controlled with the proposed strategy is compared with the stability of the block whose anchorage is set according to different control strategies.