Instructions for Using the Benchmark Code

January 21, 2004

The following steps summarizes the procedure for using the MATLAB codes for the Baseisolated Bench-
mark problem.
1. Read all the input data and prepare it in a form so that it can be read by the analysis program. This is
done with the aid of six m-files. They are fixedinputs.m, userinput.m, readinputs.m, controldevices.m,
bearinglocations.m and assemble.m. The control startegies, namely, H2 /LQG and Skyhook are imple-
mented with the aid of the m-files, H 2LQG method.m , H 2LQG lrb.m and skyhook method.m. The
file fixedinputs.m reads all the structure information and other data which are specific to this bench-
mark problem and cannot be altered by the user. This file contains information such as eigenvalues and
modes, floor masses, damping and other information about the structure itself. The file userinput.m
reads the information the user can change like the bearing type and bearing parameters. Three types
of isolation systems, with generic element properties are given in this file. Details are available in the
companion papers. The m-file readinputs.m reads the m-files fixedinputs.m, userinput.m, bearingloca-
tions.m (containing X and Y coordinates of bearings) and controldevices.m (containing information
about locations and number of control devices with other relevant information about the devices) as
scripts. All the files are commented for clarity. File bearinglocations.pdf contains a figure that can be
used for locating the coordinates of the bearings. Finally, the m-file assemble.m assembles the system
matrices (using functions massassemble, stiffassemble, transformmatrix and dampassemble)along with
other data required by the analysis program.
All the above m-files along with the controller and sensor information, integration time step, earthquake
type and direction, etc. are read through an interactive m-file runbm.m. In order to execute the first
step, simply type runbm at the command prompt and follow the menu items which steps through the
procedure. This interactive file is easy to follow and the sequence of steps necessary for a particular
type of control implementation can be inferred from it.
2. After the completion of step 1, the data is ready to be fed into the Simulink block diagrams ba-
seiso active.mdl, baseiso clipped.mdl, baseiso lrb.mdl and baseiso fric.mdl depending on the control
startegy desired and input during step 1. Details of the control designs are presented in the companion
papers. These Simulink models consists of two S-functions, Baseisomodel and MRDAMPER – that
are distributed as compiled MEX files (platform-dependent dynamically-linked libraries) for common
computing platforms (the current distribution includes MEX files for Windows 2000 and Mac OS X).
Baseisomodel performs the complete nonlinear analysis of the smart base isolated structure. The
example control strategy is provided in S-function blocks MRDAMPER and a Simulink block which
acts as a controller and provides the output voltage source to MRDAMPER. MRDAMPER calculates
the forces in the MR dampers (example control device) and the force so obtained is fed back into
Baseisomodel with a unit time step delay. In order to run the simulation just click the Start icon or
can also be implemented from the Matlab workspace by executing the command sim(’baseiso *’).
The control devices can be engaged and disengaged directly in the Simulink program with the aid of
a manual switch.
3. The number of control devices, properties and their locations can be set in controldevices.m. for linear
and friction isolation systems or in controldevices lrb.m for bilinear isolation system. The participants

1
 of this benchmark study can replace the MR Dampers and active devices with any type of control
devices. Any number of devices can be installed at the isolation level. Note that the force feed-back
to Baseisomodel should be a vector of length 2*number of control devices, corresponding to forces
in individual devices in X direction (EW) followed by forces in the devices in the Y direction (NS).
In other words, the first half of the vector contains the forces in the X direction and the second half
contains the forces in the Y direction.

Outputs

The structural outputs can be plotted using the interactive m-file, plotresponses.m(type plotresponses
at the Matlab command line). The evaluation outputs, ye are used to compute the performance indices,
J1 through J9. The forces in the control devices are in yf. The general form of yf is yf(:, column number ).
The total number of columns in yf is 2*ndevices. For example, if ndevices=8, the first eight columns contain
forces in the X direction and the next eight contain forces in Y direction.

The performance indices J1 through J9 and peak response quantities can be found by typing perind (which
is a m-file perind.m) at the Matlab command line.

The program plotresponses.m can be used to plot all the results contained in the workspace. The index
in ye corresponding to the figure shown is also listed in the workspace. Table 1 provides the list of quantities
and their corresponding index in ye.

Units and Operating System

All units are in kN, m and the files have been compiled for Matlab 6.0 R12 under Windows 2000 OS and
Matlab 6.5 R13 Mac OS X.

2
Table 1: Response Quantities Available in the Workspace and their location in ye

Description of Quantity Corresponding index in ye

Floor Displacements
(@CM of floors starting from 8th to base 1:27
e.g., X8, Y8, R8, ……….., Xb, Yb, Rb)
Floor Velocities
(@CM of floors starting from 8th to base 28:54
e.g., VX8, VY8, VR8, ……….., VXb, VXb, VRb)
Floor Accelerations
(@CM of floors starting from 8th to base 55:81
e.g., AX8, AY8, AR8, ……….., AXb, AXb, ARb)
Total non-linear forces in isolation 83:84
(x and y directions respectively)
Ground Accelerations 85:86
(x and y directions respectively)
Isolator deformations
(first output_num is in x direction and 87:(86+2* output_num)
the next output_num is in y direction)
Nonlinear Forces in Individual bearings 87+2* output_num:
(first output_num is in x direction and
the next output_num is in y direction) 86+4* output_num
Total Control Forces 87+4* output_num:
(x and y directions respectively) 88+4* output_num
Isolator Accelerations 89+4* output_num:
(first output_num is in x direction and
the next output_num is in y direction) 88+6*output_num
Displacements at device locations 89+6*output_num:
(first ndevices is in x direction and
the next ndevices is in y direction)
88+6*output_num+2*ndevices
Accelerations directly above the device
locations on all floors. 89+6*output_num+2*ndevices:
(8th floor to the base and values are arranged
88+6*output_num+20*ndevices
with first ndevices in x direction and the next
ndevices in y direction on each floor)

Note 1: output_num=8 and ndevices=8 for the example linear and friction isolation
systems.