Optimal Design of Viscous Dampers for Vibration Control of Adjacent Building Structures

The objective of this paper is to investigate the dynamic characteristics of two adjacent building structures interconnected by viscous dampers under seismic excitations. The computational procedure for an analytical model including the system model formulation, complex modal analysis and seismic time history analysis is presented for this purpose. A numerical example is also provided to illustrate the analytical model. The complex modal analysis is conducted to determine the optimal damping ratio and the optimal damper coefficient of the linear viscous damper for each mode of the system. For the damper coefficient with optimal value, the responses can be categorized into underdamped and critically damped vibrations. The seismic time history analysis is conducted to assess the effectiveness of the linear viscous damper for vibration control. Based on the optimal damping ratio and the optimal damper coefficient of the linear viscous damper for a certain mode of the system, compared to the peak responses, the linear viscous damper can be used to more effectively suppress the root-mean-square responses of the two adjacent buildings.