Seismic Response Control of a Nonlinear Tall Building Under Mainshock-Aftershock Sequences Using Semi-Active Tuned Mass Damper

Under the excitation of strong mainshock (MS), the structure will enter the nonlinear stage, whose hysteretic characteristic can be well-simulated by the Bouc-Wen (BW) model. The accompanying aftershock (AS) may increase structural damage and cause the safety problem, therefore, the advanced structural control technology is worthy of being applied to nonlinear structure under MS-AS sequences. The tuned mass damper (TMD) is a popular vibrational absorber, however, it is sensitive to the frequency deviation and may lose its effect for nonlinear dynamic response control in this issue. To protect the nonlinear tall building under MS-AS sequences effectively, a semi-active TMD (STMD) is investigated in this study, which can vary its frequency and damping in real time simultaneously. It can adapt to structural nonlinear behavior in each time segment through varying its stiffness according to the wavelet transform (WT) based algorithm, and meanwhile, enhance the energy dissipation through switching its damping coefficient in real time. A 10-story nonlinear tall building is proposed as a case study and for comparison, a passive TMD (PTMD) is used. Nine MS-AS sequences are elected and nonlinear structural control performance of STMD is highlighted. Results show that STMD can control structural displacement responses and base shear effectively and performs better than PTMD in reducing the plastic development of the structure as well. Further, energy analysis is proposed and it is verified that STMD has an excellent effect in decreasing the structural input energy from MS-AS sequences and dissipating more energy than PTMD. Especially, it is found that a strong AS may cause a larger response to the nonlinear structure than MS, while the nonlinear control effect of STMD is still significant in that case.

Automated summary

This study investigates the control effect of a semi-active tuned mass damper (STMD) on nonlinear buildings under mainshock-aftershock sequences. The STMD is able to adapt to the nonlinear behavior of the structure in different time segments by adjusting its stiffness based on a wavelet transform algorithm, and enhance energy dissipation by switching its damping coefficient in real time. Results show that the STMD effectively controls the displacement responses and base shear of the structure, and performs better than the passive TMD in reducing plastic deformation and dissipating energy.