Hybrid base-isolation of a nonlinear building using a passive resettable stiffness damper

• Published in: Engineering structures Vol. 178; pp. 206 - 211
• Main Authors: Walsh, Kenneth K., Sallar, Grace, Steinberg, Eric P.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kidlington Elsevier Ltd 01.01.2019; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: Active damping; Civil engineering; Drift; Earthquakes; Ground motion; Hybrid systems; Nonlinear systems; Seismic activity; Seismic engineering; Seismic isolation; Semiactive damping; Stiffness; System effectiveness
• ISSN: 0141-0296; 1873-7323
• DOI: 10.1016/j.engstruct.2018.10.037

The resetting semi-active stiffness damper (RSASD) has been shown to be effective at protecting civil structures subject to near-field earthquake ground motions. Recently, a modified version of the RSASD was proposed in which the semi-active components of the damper were replaced by a novel mechanism for achieving resetting of the damper force. The resulting resetting passive stiffness damper (RPSD) represents a more reliable and robust alternative to its semi-active counterpart. The objective of the research presented herein is to investigate the RPSD for hybrid base-isolation of a nonlinear building subject to a suite of near-field earthquake ground motions. The performance of the RPSD is benchmarked through a comparison with other passive, semi-active, and hybrid seismic protective systems. It is shown that the RPSD is effective in reducing the peak base drifts while maintaining the building response within the elastic range. Furthermore, it is shown that the performance of the RPSD generally compared well with the other protective systems in terms of reducing the peak base drifts, but was not as effective at reducing the peak base absolute accelerations or floor drifts.