Theoretical and numerical study of the seismic behavior of Single Degree of Freedom oscillators equipped with tuned mass dampers mounted on rubber isolators

To mitigate the effects of earthquakes on structures, several vibration control devices have been developed. Among them, the tuned mass dampers have shown to be effective in reducing the seismic response of structures. The main goal of this study is to propose optimal design parameters of tuned mass dampers mounted on rubber isolators, in order to control the seismic response of Single Degree of Freedom oscillators. These oscillators have periods ranging from Tn = 0.5 − 5 s, critical damping ratios ranging from ξ = 0.01−0.05, and mass ratios ranging from μ = 0.01−0.1. To determine the optimal design parameters, the seismic response of the oscillators subjected to white noise signals at their base are analyzed. The optimal parameters are obtained by minimizing the root mean square (RMS) of the displacement using the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm. Finally, to verify the effectiveness of the mass dampers and the optimal parameters proposed in this research, a nonlinear time-history seismic analysis is performed on a finite element model of a building equipped with the mass damper. In this model, the isolator that supports the damper mass is modeled by using the nonlinear hysteretic Bouc-Wen representation, based on the proposed optimal parameters. The results of the model provide evidence of the effectiveness of the optimal design parameters obtained in this research.