Seismic Response of High-Rise Buildings Equipped with Base Isolation and Non-Traditional Tuned Mass Dampers

Abstract

One of the methods in structural control is the application of combinational control systems in order to reduce the response of structures during earthquakes. The aim of the present paper is to verify the effectiveness of a hybrid control strategy, combining base isolation and non-traditional tuned mass dampers (TMDs) (i.e., TMDs with dashpots directly connected to the ground) in suppressing structural vibrations of high-rise buildings. The study was conducted for structures with a different number of stories exposed to various far-field and near-field earthquake records. Multi degree-of-freedom models of buildings as well as non-linear models of the base isolation system were employed in the analysis. The results of the study clearly confirmed that the response of high-rise buildings during earthquakes could be significantly reduced using base isolation devices and non-traditional TMDs. They showed also that the effectiveness in suppressing structural vibrations substantially depends on the type of the control system used. The influence of the base isolation in the reduction of structural response under different earthquake records was much larger than the influence of non-traditional TMDs. In the case of buildings analyzed in the study, the application of TMDs alone resulted in a reduction not larger than 20%, as compared to the response without any system. On the other hand, the response of buildings equipped with only base isolation devices was reduced by more than 70% under different ground motions. However, the largest reductions (larger than 80%) were obtained for the cases when both control systems (base isolation and non-traditional TMDs) were used simultaneously.