Application of Supplementary Inerter-Based Damping Devices Alongside Unbonded Fiber-Reinforced Elastomeric Isolators

Abstract

Earthquakes have always been a menace to the lives and properties of human beings since the beginning of modern times. Several methods have been proposed since to mitigate the various types of seismic hazards, base isolation being one of them. The base-isolated structures being very effective for general far-fault earthquakes, are, however susceptible to high responses under near-fault ground motions; thus, several inerter-based supplementary damping devices have been proposed in this study to be applied alongside a highly nonlinear and effective unbonded fiber-reinforced elastomeric isolators (UFEI) system. The dampers are optimally designed and comparatively investigated with the isolation system for mitigation of a wide range of ground motions to the benchmark structure. Furthermore, two parametric studies were also carried out, which investigated the effect of the inertance-mass ratio and floor connectivity of the grounded damper on various responses of the isolator-damper-structure system. The parametric results are further used to suggest the best configuration and inertance-mass ratios for various dampers for effective seismic mitigation of the aforementioned base-isolated structure. The results show an effective reduction in seismic responses with the use of optimal inerter-based dampers in UFEI-isolated structures.