Semi-active and passive control of the phase I linear base-isolated benchmark building model

In this paper various semi-active control strategies and linear passive dampers are applied to the benchmark building model to evaluate their effectiveness in reducing response quantities of the building subject to prescribed earthquakes. These control strategies include: semi-active continuous pulse friction (SACPF) controller, semi-active discontinuous pulse friction (SADPF) controller, linear passive viscous (LPV) damper, smooth boundary layer semi-active friction (SBLSAF) controller, resetting semi-active stiffness damper (RSASD) and visco-elastic friction (VEF) damper. Both SACPF and SADPF controllers are designed by using the augmented structure-pulse filter model recently proposed. Extensive simulation results indicate that all these controllers are very effective in mitigating the base displacements. For different controllers, a reduction in the base displacement may result in an increase of other quantities, e.g. the base and superstructure shears, inter-storey drifts and floor accelerations, during some earthquakes. Average results of the performance indices J1–J5 indicate that various semi-active friction controllers, including SACPF, SADPF, SBLSAF and VEF, are most effective followed by the RSASD and the sample semi-active controller. Overall, SACPF and SADPF controllers have better capability of reducing all response quantities compared with other semi-active controllers.