Frame jack-enhanced viscous damping approach for efficient seismic response mitigation of airport control towers

• Published in: Structures (Oxford) Vol. 66; p. 106859
• Main Authors: Yang, Kai, Xu, Zhenhua, Ma, Yijia, Wu, Minjun, Zhao, Zhipeng, Luo, Chao
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.08.2024
• Subjects: Airport control tower; Energy dissipation enhancement; Seismic loads; Vibration control; Viscous damper; Airport control tower; Viscous damper; Vibration control; Energy dissipation enhancement; Seismic loads
• ISSN: 2352-0124; 2352-0124
• DOI: 10.1016/j.istruc.2024.106859

In seismic-prone areas, the construction of airport control towers has been widely undertaken to meet the rapidly expanding transportation demand. Within this context, attention is increasingly drawn towards highly efficient upgrading technologies capable of mitigating bending-mode deformation. A novel approach, defined as the frame jack-enhanced viscous damper (FJ-EVD), is proposed to address seismic response mitigation in airport control towers by strategically employing frame jacks to improve viscous damping. The mechanical model and desired deformation amplification properties of FJ-EVDs are elucidated, followed by the construction of a tower-type structure equipped with FJ-EVDs. Nonlinear time history analysis and parametric investigation are performed to explore the vibration mitigation benefits under seismic excitations characterized by various frequency components. Subsequently, utilizing suggested nonlinear parameter sets and acknowledging the distinctive influence of earthquake types, a displacement amplification-oriented design formula is formulated for the FJ-EVD. Furthermore, the optimized FJ-EVDs are implemented in a typical airport control tower subjected to both far-field earthquakes and pulse-like earthquakes for practical design evaluation. Results demonstrate that the proposed FJ-EVD offers a compact and highly efficient damping solution for enhancing the seismic performance of airport control towers, leveraging the displacement amplification advantages to directly mitigate bending deformations. Following the proposed displacement amplification-oriented design methodology, the FJ-EVD exhibits superior effectiveness and robust control performance compared to conventional viscous dampers optimized under the same criterion. Benefitting from the employed frame jack, only a small installation space is required to facilitate the crossing-story installation, thereby tailoring the proper design parameters and effective bending deformation control for the airport control towers.