Partial mass isolation in tall buildings

Abstract

To find an economical approach in the seismic design of tall buildings, it is proposed to isolate a part of the structure by an isolator layer located in the height of building. Application of this technique causes a fundamental change in basic dynamic characteristics of the system. As a result, all major modal shapes of structure exhibit large displacement at the level of the isolator. A viscous damping device integrated into the isolation layer utilizes this relative movement to effectively reduce the earthquake input energy transmitted to the system. This technique is quite versatile and easily adjustable to different applications including seismic retrofit of buildings. Numerical analysis of some basic examples in this study shows desirable performances for a variety of applications.