Seismic vibration mitigation of a multi-story building structure using rate-independent linear damping

Abstract

It was well established that rate-independent linear damping (RILD) can benefit base-isolated building structures by reducing the isolator displacement without increasing the floor response acceleration. In the present study, we further extended the application of RILD for seismic vibration mitigation of multi-story building structures. For this purpose, a gradient-based optimization method was presented to determine the locations and required quantities of RILD elements. A ten-story benchmark building structure was employed as an analytical example, and the effectiveness of the proposed method was verified by comparing the performance of the RILD controlled structures using different damper placement methods. Moreover, parametric studies were conducted to investigate the effect of RILD on the dynamic behavior of the optimally controlled structure.
The performance curves of the benchmark structure enhanced with optimally placed RILD and viscous dampers were further compared in terms of the control cost and structural inter-story drift. It is suggested that RILD can be advantageous over the conventional viscous damper by more effectively mitigating the seismic vibration response of a multi-story building structure without increasing the control cost.