Development of Seismic Response Simulation Model for Building Structures with Semi-Active Control Devices Using Recurrent Neural Network

A structural analysis model to represent the dynamic behavior of building structure is required to develop a semi-active seismic response control system. Although the finite element method (FEM) is the most widely used method for seismic response analysis, when the FEM is applied to the dynamic analysis of building structures with nonlinear semi-active control devices, the computational effort required for the simulation for optimal design of the semi-active control system can be considerable. To solve this problem, this paper used recurrent neural network (RNN) to make a time history response simulation model for building structures with a semi-active control system. Example structures were selected of an 11-story building structure with a semi-active tuned mass damper (TMD), and a 27-story building having a semi-active mid-story isolation system. A magnetorheological damper was used as the semi-active control device. Five historical earthquakes and five artificial ground motions were used as ground excitations to train the RNN model. Two artificial ground motions and one historical earthquake, which were not used for training, were used to verify the developed the RNN model. Compared to the FEM model, the developed RNN model could effectively provide very accurate seismic responses, with significantly reduced computational cost.