Determination of Optimum Location of Multiple Tuned Mass Dampers in Regular and Irregular Steel Buildings in Plan under Near and Far-Fault Earthquakes

Using Tuned Mass Dampers (TMD) is one of the common methods for the passive control of structures subjected to earthquake. The structure of these dampers consists of three main parameters: mass, damping and stiffness. Multiple Tuned Mass Dampers (MTMD) reduce the amplitude of the responses by affecting over the modal properties of the structures. In the most cases, the installation of only a single TMD on the roof of the buildings or several dampers at the several points of the roof of the buildings requires considerable mass and space. In this study, the performance of MTMD in regular and irregular L- and U-shaped ten-story steel building is investigated under the near and far-field records. Nonlinear time history analysis is also applied in this paper. The SAP2000 software API function and MATLAB Genetic Algorithm (GA) is also utilized to determine the optimal locations of the MTMD in the roof plan. The results demonstrate the efficiency of MTMD on reducing the seismic responses of the building including acceleration, displacement and base shear such that on average, the roof displacement, acceleration, and the base shear are reduced 50,40 and 40% respectively. The optimal locations of MTMD in the ten-story model also indicate the importance of the symmetrical positioning of the dampers relative to the centre of mass of building.