Seismic Vibration Control of a MDOF Building Connected with Viscous and SAVFD Dampers

Abstract- Vibrations due to natural dynamic loads generated by earthquake. The reducing of structural vibrations occurs by adding a mechanical system that is installed in a structure called Dampers.In this paper, the vibration control of multi degree of freedom (MDOF) buildings connected with selected types of dampers due to earthquake effect is studied. The application of Viscous and Semi active variable friction (SAVFD) damper for response control of seismically excited building is evaluated. Both dampers effectiveness is investigated in terms of the reduction of structural responses (displacements and accelerations) of the connected to building. The optimum number and the location of dampers are decided by the optimization procedure. The numerical study is carried out, namely (a) A MDOF building connected with viscous dampers with optimum damping coefficient (b) A MDOF buildings connected by Semi active variable friction dampers with optimum gain multiplier. Results shows that using viscous and SAVFD to connect structures can effectively reduce earthquake-induced responses of either structure but when SAVFD is used to connect buildings and results shows that SAVFD can control only displacements of structures. Further, lesser damper at appropriate locations can significantly reduce the earthquake response of the coupled system. The reduction in responses when MDOF building connected with 50 % of the total dampers at appropriate locations is almost as much as when they are connected at all floors, thereby the cost of the dampers can be minimized