Influence of damping systems on building structures subject to seismic effects

In order to control the vibration response of high rise buildings during seismic events, energy absorbing passive damping devices are most commonly used for energy absorption. Today there are a number of types of manufactured dampers available in the market, which use a variety of materials and designs to obtain various levels of stiffness and damping. Some of these include friction, yielding, viscoelastic and viscous dampers. These dampers are usually installed between two load bearing elements (walls or columns) in new buildings. In existing buildings, which require retrofitting, they could be installed in cut-outs of shear walls, as evidenced from recent investigations. An effective damping system can result in higher levels of safety and comfort, and can also lead to considerable savings in the total cost of a building. \ud \ud \ud \ud This thesis treats seismic mitigation of multistorey buildings using embedded dampers. Three types of damping mechanisms, viz, friction, viscoelastic, and combined friction-viscoelastic were investigated. Finite element methods were employed in the analysis using the program ABAQUS version 6.3. A direct integration dynamic analysis was carried out to obtain the damped and undamped responses of the structure in terms of deflections and accelerations at all storeys in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the damping system in mitigating the seismic response. The damping mechanisms have been modelled as (i) a linear spring and dash-pot in parallel for the viscoelastic damper, (ii) a contact pair with friction parameter for a friction damper and (iii) a hybrid damper consisting of both a viscoelastic and a friction damper. The earthquake events used in this study have been applied as acceleration time-histories at the base of the structure in the horizontal plane. Concrete material properties were chosen to represent the model as many high-rise buildings are constructed by using reinforced concrete. \ud \ud \ud \ud Several medium and high-rise building structures with embedded dampers in different configurations and placed in various locations throughout the structure were subjected to different earthquake loadings. Influence of damper type and properties, configuration and location were investigated. Results for the reduction in tip deflection and acceleration for a number of cases demonstrate the feasibility of the technique for seismic mitigation of these structures for a range of excitations, even when the dominant seismic frequencies match the natural frequency of the structure. Results also provide information which can be used for optimal damper placement for seismic mitigation