PLAN-WISE DIVISION OF THE BUILDING’S SKELETON INTO DYNAMICALLY INTERACTIVE PARTS FOR SEISMIC RESPONSE REDUCTION

Abstract

Among different seismic design methods, the more recent ones are based on improving the energy dissipation potential of the system by using added energy absorbers. One way for increasing the energy dissipation capability of the energy absorbers in a building is dividing its skeleton into some dynamically interactive parts. This partitioning has been studied for two-dimensional (2D) structures in past researches. In this paper, a new method is discussed by partitioning the three-dimensional (3D) building’s structure into four interactive substructures, two stiff and two soft. As the first stage of the study, presented in this paper, a one-story building was designed according to the conventional method, then the structure was divided into four parts with the same mass but different stiffness values, inter connected by linear viscous dampers with different damping coefficients at the roof level. To evaluate the seismic responses of the buildings a set of appropriate two-component records were selected and a series of nonlinear time history analysis (NLTHA) were conducted. The calculated responses include roof absolute acceleration, roof relative displacement, and base shears in both main horizontal directions. Furthermore, the plastic hinges (PHs) formed in the two structures were investigated. Comparison of responses, obtained by NLTHA, shows that partitioning of the skeleton, and using appropriate dampers, provide more desired responses, so that in the partitioned structure the drift values are, on average, 56% less than the single-part structure. Also, based on the formed PHs, the partitioned structure has been observed to have higher seismic performance level than the single-part structure. © 2024, International Association for Earthquake Engineering. All rights reserved.