A Bibliometric Analysis of Magnetorheological Damper Applications for Seismic Structural Control in Civil Engineering

Magnetorheological (MR) dampers have emerged as one of the most promising semi-active control devices for mitigating seismic responses in civil engineering structures due to their rapid response capability, low power requirement, and adaptive damping characteristics. Although numerous studies have investigated the design, modeling, and control performance of MR dampers, the scientific development of this research field has not yet been comprehensively evaluated from a bibliometric perspective. Therefore, this study aims to systematically evaluate the scientific development of MR-damper applications for seismic structural control through a comprehensive bibliometric analysis based on publications retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection. Following a systematic screening process, 409 publications published between 1996 and 2025 were analyzed using performance analysis and science-mapping techniques implemented in VOSviewer. The analysis evaluates publication trends, leading journals, influential authors, productive institutions, international collaboration networks, highly cited publications, and thematic patterns through keyword co-occurrence and science-mapping analyses. The findings reveal a sustained increase in research activity over the past two decades, with the United States and China emerging as the leading contributors to scientific production. Structural Control and Health Monitoring and Engineering Structures are identified as the most influential publication sources, while keyword analysis indicates an increasing emphasis on intelligent control algorithms, experimental validation, and advanced seismic-control strategies. The findings provide a quantitative overview of the scientific development of MR-damper research and highlight potential directions for future research in intelligent seismic structural control.