Supplemental dampers in base-isolated buildings to mitigate large isolator displacement under earthquake excitations

Abstract

The effect of viscous, viscoelastic, and friction supplemental dampers on the seismic response of base-isolated building supported by various isolation systems is investigated. Although base-isolated buildings have an advantage in reducing damage to the superstructure, the displacement at the isolation level is large, especially under near-fault ground motions. The influence of supplemental dampers in controlling the isolator displacement and other responses of base-isolated building is investigated using a multi-storey building frame. The coupled equations of motion are derived, solved and time history analysis is carried out on a building modeled with fifteen combinations of five isolation systems and three passive dampers. The seismic responses are compared with that of the fixed-base and base-isolated buildings. Based on the results, it is concluded that supplemental dampers are beneficial to control the large deformation at the isolator level. Parametric study is conducted and optimum ranges of damper parameters to achieve reduced isolator displacement without adverse effect on the other responses are determined. Further, it is concluded that the combination of the resilient-friction base isolator (R-FBI) and viscous damper is the most effective in reducing the bearing displacement without significant increase in superstructure forces.