Optimum placement and characteristics of velocity-dependent dampers under seismic excitation

In this study, through novel drift-based equations of motion in the frequency domain, optimum placement and characteristics of linear velocity-dependent dampers are investigated. In this study, the sum of the square of the absolute values of transfer matrix elements for interstory drifts is considered as the optimization index. Optimum placement and characteristics of dampers are simultaneously obtained by minimizing the optimization index through an incremental procedure. In each step of the procedure, a predefined value is considered as the damper characteristic. The optimum story for this increment is selected such that it leads to a minimum value for the optimization index. The procedure is repeated for the next increments until the optimization index meets its target value, which is obtained according to the desired damping ratio for the overall structure. In other words, the desired overall damping ratio is the input to the proposed procedure, and the optimal placement and characteristics of the dampers are its output. It is observed that the optimal placement of a velocitydependent damper depends on the damping coefficient of the added damper, frequency of the excitation, and distribution of the mass, stiffness, and inherent damping of the main structure.