Optimized earthquake response of multi-storey buildings with seismic isolation at various elevations
Date
2012Source
Earthquake Engineering & Structural DynamicsVolume
41Issue
15Pages
2289-2310Google Scholar check
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SUMMARY The response of multi-storey structures can be controlled under earthquake actions by installing seismic isolators at various storey levels. By vertically distributing isolation devices at various elevations, the designer is provided with numerous options to appropriately adjust the seismic performance of a building. However, introducing seismic isolators at various storey levels is not a straightforward task, as it may lead to favourable or unfavourable structural behaviour depending on a large number of factors. As a consequence, a rather chaotic decision space of seismic isolation configurations arises, within which a favourable solution needs to be located. The search for favourable isolators' configurations is formulated in this work as a single-objective optimization task. The aim of the optimization process is to minimize the maximum floor acceleration of the building under consideration, while constraints are specified to control the maximum interstorey drift, the maximum base displacement and the total seismic isolation cost. A genetic algorithm is implemented to perform this optimization task, which selectively introduces seismic isolators at various elevations, in order to identify the optimal configuration for the isolators satisfying the pre-specified constraints. This way, optimized earthquake response of multi-storey buildings can be obtained. The effectiveness of the proposed optimization procedure in the design of a seismically isolated structure is demonstrated in a numerical study using time-history analyses of a typical six-storey building. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Earthquake Engineering & Structural Dynamics is the property of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)