Passive control design for elasto-plastically damped building structure

In recent years passively-controlled building structures by incorporating elasto-plastic (EP) dampers have become common in Japan. This paper discusses a simplified prediction theory for peak seismic response and a design approach for elasto-plastically damped building in preliminary seismic design. The proposed theory is based on the single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) idealization of multi-story building structure, and uses the so-called “control performance curve” which simultaneously expresses the seismic performance as a function of stiffness parameter, ductility demand and seismic response spectrum. A rule to convert a SDOF design to a multi-story design including the arrangement of damper stiffness over the height of building is also presented. The accuracy of this design approach is validated via time history simulations over a wide range of multi-degree-of-freedom (MDOF) models.