Performance of Base Isolators and Tuned Mass Dampers in Vibration Control of a Multistoried Building

Earthquakes create vibrations on the ground that are translated into dynamic loads which cause the ground and anything attached to it to vibrate in a complex manner and cause damage to buildings and other structures. Civil engineering is continuously improving ways to cope with this inherent phenomenon. Conventional strategies of strengthening the system consume more materials and energy. Moreover, higher masses lead to higher seismic forces. Alternative strategies such as passive control systems are found to be effective in reducing the seismic and other dynamic effects on civil engineering structures. The present paper focuses on the performance evaluation of a few passive control systems such as base isolation systems and tuned mass dampers in the vibration control of a linear multi storied structure under harmonic and earthquake base motions. Base isolators such as Lead Rubber Bearing (LRB) system and Friction Pendulum System (FPS); and, a tuned mass damper (TMD) are designed for a ten storied reinforced concrete building. The building is modelled as a 10 degrees of freedom shear building model and Bouc Wen model is used to describe the hysteretic behaviour of base isolators. The performance of LRB system, FPS and TMD are evaluated numerically and compared. The frequency response characteristics of the systems are also studied.