An engineer at Washington University in St. Louis has successfully performed the first test of wireless sensors in the simulated structural control of a model laboratory building. The demonstration is the first step toward implementing wireless sensors for structural control in real buildings and structures, enabling less manpower requirements and far less remodeling of existing structures.

The wireless sensors are attached to the sides of buildings to monitor the force of sway when shaking occurs. The information is transmitted to a computer program, which then sends a message to magnetorheological (MR) dampers that are within the building's structure. Filled with a fluid that includes suspended iron particles, the MR dampers lessen the shaking by becoming solid when an electrical current is run through them, aligning all of the iron particles.

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