The role of inerters when placed at floor-levels other than the first level

Abstract

While inerters manifest a distinct role in multistory structures when installed without being interrupted, starting from the first level; there is a growing number of publications that examine the response of tall buildings when equipped at a higher level with a solitary mechanical network that involves inerters. In this paper we show that in spite of the reduced role of inerters when placed at floor levels other than the first level (they no-longer suppress the induced ground acceleration nor they can eliminate the participation of higher modes) they still manifest a unique role since it is not possible to replace a structure with a solitary inerter at a higher level with an equivalent traditional structure without inerters.