Preliminary study of optimal placement of viscous dampers in buildings

Journal article

Although earthquake-resistant design with supplemental viscous damping has increased in use, there is not a consensus on the best way to optimise the placement of dampers within structures. Limited research has been conducted on the optimisation of viscous dampers. The rate-dependencies of nonlinear viscous dampers have been observed with physical behavioural testing, and basic analytical models prove to overestimate the energy dissipation potential of these devices. A preliminary optimisation scenario is presented for a baseline building with linear viscous dampers. The stiffness inversely-proportional damping technique proves to be the most effective at reducing interstory drifts for this preliminary scenario, while the Simplified Sequential Search Algorithm is slightly less effective than the stiffness inversely-proportional damping technique and more effective than a uniform damper placement technique at reducing interstory drifts. Future work will incorporate the application of various optimization techniques with nonlinear viscous dampers to determine effective and easily applied optimisation placement methods.

Authors: Whittle, J; Williams, M; Blakeborough, A

• Journal: 9th US National and 10th Canadian Conference on Earthquake Engineering 2010, Including Papers from the 4th International Tsunami Symposium
• Volume: 8
• Pages: 6346-6355
• Publication date: 2010-01-01
• Language: English