Configuration optimization of dampers for adjacent buildings under seismic excitations

Passive coupling of adjacent structures is known to be an effective method to reduce undesirable vibrations and structural pounding effects. Past results have shown that reducing the number of dampers can considerably decrease the cost of implementation and does not significantly decrease the efficiency of the system. The main objective of this study was to find the optimal arrangement of a limited number of dampers to minimize interstorey drift. Five approaches to solving the resulting bi-level optimization problem are introduced and examined (exhaustive search, inserting dampers, inserting floors, locations of maximum relative velocity and a genetic algorithm) and the numerical efficiency of each method is examined. The results reveal that the inserting damper method is the most efficient and reliable method, particularly for tall structures. It was also found that increasing the number of dampers does not necessarily increase the efficiency of the system. In fact, increasing the number of dampers can exacerbate the dynamic response of the system.