Friction Damper-Based Passive Vibration Control Assessment for Seismically-Excited Buildings Through Comparison with Active Control: A Case Study

Abstract

In this paper, (i) we present a novel approach for easily developing mechanical models of buildings integrated with friction dampers to simplify their numerical simulation, and (ii) using the developed approach, friction damper-based passive control and then mass driver-based robust active vibration control strategies are applied on a seismically excited, three-story building simulation model, and the results are compared to assess the vibration attenuation level achieved by the passive control approach. The simulation results reveal that displacement and acceleration response reductions in active control are, in general, better than those in passive control but the difference is not that big. These findings, hence, encourage strongly the use of friction damper-based passive vibration control mechanisms as strong alternatives to active control methods in structural protection against earthquakes.