Optimal placement of damping devices in buildings

摘要

The appropriate use of energy dissipating devices improves the behavior of structures when subjected to external loads, defining the optimal location of the dampers; therefore, it is crucial to ensure their efficiency. In this work, the mathematical expressions of an efficient and systematic procedure proposed by Takewaki were adapted and detailed to find the optimum location of dampers when a structural damper is used. This procedure consists of minimizing the sum of the amplitudes of the transfer functions evaluated at the undamped fundamental frequency of a structural system subject to constraints on the sum of the damping coefficients of the added dampers. For instance, at the beginning and end of the calculation, the sum of the damping coefficients entered must be the same. A series of numerical examples on shear building models within a range of two to six stories are used to verify the efficiency of the systematic procedure. The results showed that the optimal placement method is efficient due to the amplitude reduction of the transfer function after the optimal distribution of the damping coefficients in the structure.